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61ST CONGRESS : : 2D SESSION
1909-1910
SENATE DOCUMENTS
VOL. 94
WASHINGTON : : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : : 1910
GIST CONGRESS \ QFMATF /DOCUMENT
2d Session } SENATE j No. 645
REPORT ON CONDITION
OF
WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS
IN THE UNITED STATES
IN 19 VOLUMES
VOLUME IX: HISTORY OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY
IN THE UNITED STATES
Prepared under the direction of
CHAS. P. NEILL
Commissioner of Labor
by
HELEN L. SUMNER, Ph. D.
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1910
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,
June 15, 1910.
Resolved, That the complete report on the condition of woman and
child wage-earners in the United States, transmitted and to be trans-
mitted by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor in response to the
act approved January twenty-ninth, nineteen hundred and seven,
entitled "An act to authorize the Secretary of Commerce and Labor
to report upon the industrial, social, moral, educational, and physical
condition of woman and child workers in the United States/' be
printed as a public document.
CHARLES G. BENNETT,
Secretary.
2
CONTENTS.
Page.
Letters of transmitted : 7
Chapter I. — Introduction and summary 9-34
Changes in occupations of women " 12-20
Attitude of the public toward the employment of women 13-15
Causes of the entrance of women into industry 15-17
Expansion of woman's sphere 17-20
History of labor conditions 20-32
Home and factory work 20, 21
General conditions of life and labor 21-23
Hours of labor 23
Wages and unemployment 23-27
Displacement and effect of women's work on men's wages 27-30
Industrial education and efficiency of women 30-32
Scope and sources of the report 32-34
Chapter H.— Textile industries 35-111
General characteristics 37-39
The home work and handicraft stage 39-46
The period of spinning machinery 46-50
The complete factory system 50-62
Cotton manufacture 52-58
Wool manufacture 58, 59
Hosiery and knit goods 59, 60
Silk manufacture , 60, 61
Other textile Industrie? 61, 62
Hours of labor 62-73
Wages 73-79
Labor supply 79-81
Changes in nationality 81-83
Factory boarding houses 84-88
Education 88, 89
Literary activity at Lowell 89-94
Factory rules 94-100
Health 100-108
Intensity of labor 108-111
Chapter m. — Clothing and the sewing trades 113-174
General characteristics and history 115-119
Hand work in the garment trades 119-142
Development of the wholesale trade 120-122
Mathew Carey's crusade against low wages 123-133
Later conditions of labor 134-142
3
4 CONTENTS.
Chapter m.— Clothing and the sewing trades— Concluded. Page.
The machine in the garment trades 142-155
Growth of the ready-made business 142, 143
Statistics 143, 144
Wages and conditions of labor 144-151
Government work and the subcontract system 151-155
The home, the shop, and the factory 155
Other clothing and sewing trades 156-166
Millinery, straw and lace goods 156-159
Artificial flowers 159
Hats and caps 159-162
Umbrella sewers 162-164
Collars and cuffs 164, 165
Buttons 165
Gloves , 165,166
Boot and shoe making 167-174
Period of home work 167-170
The factory system 1 70-174
Chapter IV. — Domestic and personal service 175-185
Servants and waitresses 177-183
Laundresses 183, 184
Miscellaneous occupations in domestic and personal service 185
Chapter V. — Food and kindred products 187-191
Chapter VI. — Other manufacturing industries 193-230
Tobacco and cigar factory operatives 195-205
Statistics 195-J97
Causes of employment of women cigar makers 198-201
Labor conditions 201-205
Paper and printing industries 205-221
Paper making 206, 207
Paper box making 207, 208
Map and print coloring 208, 209
Bookbinding 209-211
Printing and publishing 212-221
Miscellaneous industries 221-230
Metal workers 222-225
Wood, chemical, clay, and glass workers 225-227
Women in other industries 228-230
Chapter Vn. — Trade and transportation 231-242
General considerations 233, 234
Saleswomen 234-238
Stenographers, typewriters, clerks, copyists, bookkeepers, and account-
ants . 238-241
Telegraph and telephone operators 241, 242
Appendix 243-263
Table I. — Percentage of breadwinners in the female population 16 years
of age and over, by geographical divisions, 1870, 1880, 1890; and 1900. . 245
Table II. — Percentage of breadwinners in the female population 15 years
of age and over, for continental United States, classified by age, race,
and nativity, 1890 and 1900 245
Table III. — Percentage of breadwinners in the female population 15 years
of age and over for the United States (area of enumeration), classified by
race, nativity, and marital condition, 1890 and 1900 245
CONTENTS. 5
Appendix— Concluded.
Table IV.— Number and per cent in each occupation group of females 10
years of age and over engaged in gainful occupations, by geographical
division*, 1870, 1880, 1890, and 1900 240
Table V. — Per cent in each occupation group of native and foreign-born
females, 10 years of age and over, engaged in gainful occupations, 1880,
1890, and 1900 246
Table VI. — Per cent in each occupation group and in selected occupations
of female breadwinners 15 years of age and over, for the United States
(area of enumeration), classified by race and nativity, 1890 and 1900 247
Table VII. — Per cent, by conjugal condition, of females engaged in speci-
fied occupations, 1890 and 1900 248
Table VIII. — Per cent of women 16 years of age and over in all manufac-
turing industries, compared with men 16 years and over and with children
under 16 years, by geographical divisions 249
Table IX. — Average number of women wage-earners and per cent which
women formed of the total number of wage-earners, by groups of indus-
tries, 1850 to 1905 250
Table X. — Textile industries: Average number of women wage-earners
and per cent which women formed of the total number of wage-earners at
each census, 1850 to 1900 251, 252
Table XI. — Clothing industries: Average number of women wage-earners
and per cent which women formed of the total number of wage-earners
at each census, 1850 to 1900 253, 254
Table XII. — Domestic and personal service: Number of women 16 years of
age and over and per cent which women formed of total number of per-
sons gainfully employed, in specified occupations at each census, 1870
to 1900 254
Table XIII. — Food and kindred products: Average number of women
wage-earners and per cent which women formed of the total number of
wage-earners at each census, 1850 to 1900 255, 256
Table XIV. — Tobacco: Average number of women wage-earners and per
cent which women formed of the total number of wage-earners at each
census, 1850 to 1900 256
Table XV. — Paper and printing: Average number of women wage-earners
and per cent which women formed of the total number of wage-earners
at each census, 1850 to 1900 257, 258
Table XVI. — Selected industries included in other manufacturing indus-
tries, by groups: Average number of women wage-earners and per cent
which women formed of the total number of wage-earners at each census,
1850 to 1900 258, 259
Table XVII. — Trade and transportation: Number of women 16 years of age
and over and per cent which women formed of total number oi persons
gainfully employed in specified occupations at each census, 1870 to 1900. 259
Table A. — Some strikes in textile factories on account of reduction in
wages, 1829 to 1878 260
Table B. — Piecework rates asked by the tailoresses' union of New York,
and the rates offered by a small number of the employing tailors, June
and July, 1831 : 260, 261
Table C. — Wages of sewing women in Philadelphia in 1863 262
Table D.— Wages of women in New York in 1863 and 1866 262
Table E. — Wages reported as paid individual women in New York in 1868. 262
Table F. — Wages reported as paid individual women in New York in 1870. 263
Table G.— Number of girls employed in bookbinderies of specified firms
in Philadelphia, Pa., with average hours employed per day, piecework
rates, and average weekly earnings, 1835 263
LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR,
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
Washington, November 23, 1910.
SIR: In partial compliance with the Senate resolution of May 25,
1910, I beg to transmit herewith a report on the history of women in
industry in the United States.
This report is the ninth section available for transmission of the
larger report on the investigation carried on in accordance with the
act of Congress approved January 29, 1907, which provided "that the
Secretary of Commerce and Labor be, and he is hereby, authorized
and directed to investigate and report on the industrial, social, moral,
educational, and physical condition of woman and child workers in
the United States wherever employed, with special reference to their
age, hours of labor, term of employment, health, illiteracy, sanitary
and other conditions surrounding their occupation, and the means
employed for the protection of their health, person, and morals."
The remaining sections of the general report are being completed as
rapidly as possible and will each be transmitted at the earliest prac-
ticable moment.
Respectfully, BENJ. S. CABLE,
Acting Secretary.
Hon. JAMES S. SHERMAN,
President of the Senate, Washington, D. G.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR,
BUREAU OF LABOR,
Washington, November 23, 1910.
SIR: I beg to transmit herewith Volume IX of the report on woman
and child wage-earners in the United States which relates to the history
of women in industry in the United States. This is the ninth section
transmitted of the report of the general investigation into the condi-
tion of woman and child workers in the United States, carried on in
compliance with the act of Congress approved January 29, 1907.
The preparation of this study is the work of Miss Helen L. Sumner.
The work has been carried on under the direction of Chas. H. Verrill.
I am, very respectfully,
G. W. W. HANGER,
Acting Commissioner.
The SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR,
Washington,, D. 0.
CHAPTER L
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.
The history of women in industry in the United States is the story
of a great industrial readjustment, which has not only carried woman's
work from the home to the factory, but has changed its economic
character from unpaid production for home consumption to gainful
employment in the manufacture of articles for sale. Women have
always worked, and their work has probably always been quite as
important a factor in the total economy of society as it is to-day.
But during the nineteenth century a transformation occurred in
then- economic position and in the character and conditions of their
work. Their unpaid services have been transformed into paid serv-
ices, their work has been removed from the home to the factory
and workshop, their range of possible employment has been increased
and at the same time their monopoly of their traditional occupations
has been destroyed. The individuality of their work has been lost
in a standardized product.
The story of woman's work in gainful employments is a story of
constant changes or shiftings of work and workshop, accompanied
by long hours, low wages, insanitary conditions, overwork, and the
want on the part of the woman of training, skill, and vital interest in
her work. It is a story of monotonous machine labor, of division
and subdivision of tasks until the woman, like the traditional tailor
who is called the ninth part of a man, is merely a fraction, and that
rarely as much even as a tenth part, of an artisan. It is a story,
moreover, of underbidding, of strike breaking, of the lowering of
standards for men breadwinners.
In certain industries and certain localities women's unions have
raised the standard of wages. The opening of industrial schools
and business colleges, too, though affecting almost exclusively the
occupations entered by the daughters of middle-class families who
have only recently begun to pass from home work to the industrial
field, has at least enabled these few girls to keep from further swelling
the vast numbers of the unskilled. The evil of long hours and in
certain cases other conditions which lead to overstrain, such as the
constant standing of saleswomen, have been made the subject of
legislation. The decrease of strain due to shorter hours has, however,
been in part nullified by increased speed of machinery and other
11
12 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
devices designed to obtain the greatest possible amount of labor
from each woman. Nevertheless, the history of woman's work in
this country shows that legislation has been the only force which
has improved the working conditions of any large number of women
wage-earners. Aside from the little improvement that has been
effected in the lot of working women, the most surprising fact brought
out in this study is the long period of time through which large
numbers of women have worked under conditions which have
involved not only great hardships to themselves but shocking waste
to the community.
CHANGES IN OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN.
The transfer of women from nonwage-earning home work to
gainful occupations is evident to the most superficial observer, and
it is well known that most of this transfer has been effected since the
beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1870 it was found that 14.7
per cent of the female population 16 years of age and over were
breadwinners, and by 1900 the percentage was 20.6 per cent. During
the period for which statistics exist, moreover, the movement toward
the increased employment of women in gainful pursuits was clear
and distinct in all sections of the country ° and was even more
marked among the native-born than among the foreign-born.6 It
must be borne in mind, however, that even in colonial days there
were many women who worked for wages, especially at spinning,
weaving, the sewing trades, and domestic service. Many women,
too, carried on business on their own account in the textile and
sewing trades and also in such industries as the making of blackberry
brandy. The wage labor of women is as old as the country itself
and has merely increased in importance. The amount, however, of
unremunerated home work performed by women must still be con-
siderably larger than the amount of gainful labor, for even in 1900
only about one-fifth of the women 16 years of age and over were
breadwinners.
Along with the decrease in the importance of unremunerated home
labor and the increase in the importance of wage labor has gone a
considerable amount of shifting of occupations. Under the old do-
mestic system the work of the woman was to spin, to do a large part
of the weaving, to sew, to knit; in general, to make most of the cloth-
ing worn by the family, to embroider tapestry in the days and regions
where there was time for art, to cook, to brew ale and wine, to clean,
and to perform the other duties of the domestic servant. These things
women have always done. But machines have now come in to aid
a See Table I, p. 245.
& See Table II, p. 245. Table III (p. 245) also shows that the proportion of married,
as well as of single, widowed, and divorced women at work is increasing.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 13
in all these industries — machines which in some cases have brought
in their train men operatives and in other cases have enormously
increased the productive power of the individual and have made it
necessary for many women, who under the old regime, like Priscilla,
would have calmly sat by the window spinning, to hunt other work.
One kind of spinning is now done by men only. Men tailors make
every year thousands of women's suits. Men dressmakers and even
milliners are common. Men make our bread and brew our ale and
do much of the work of the steam laundry where our clothes are
washed. Recently, too, men have learned to clean our houses by
the vacuum process.
Before the introduction of spinning machinery and the sewing
machine the supply of female labor appears never to have been
excessive. But the spinning jenny threw out of employment thou-
sands of ''spinsters/' who were obliged to resort to sewing as the only
other occupation to which they were in any way trained. This
accounts for the terrible pressure in the clothing trades during the
early decades of the nineteenth century. Later on, before any read-
justment of women's work had been effected, the sewing machine
was introduced, which enormously increased the pressure of competi-
tion among women workers. Shortly after the substitution of ma-
chinery for the spinning wheel the women of certain localities in Mas-
sachusetts found an outlet in binding shoes — an opportunity opened
to them by the division of labor and by the development of the ready-
made trade. But when the sewing machine was introduced this
field, at least for a time, was again contracted. Under this pressure,
combined with the rapid development of wholesale industry and divi-
sion of labor, women have been pressed into other industries, almost
invariably in the first instance into the least skilled and most poorly
paid occupations. This has gone on until there is now scarcely an
industry which does not employ women. Thus woman's sphere has
expanded, and its former boundaries can now be determined only by
observing the degree of popular condemnation which follows their
employment in particular industries.
ATTITUDE OF THE PUBLIC TOWARD THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN.
The attitude of the public toward the employment of women has,
indeed, made their progress into gainful occupations slow and diffi-
cult, and has greatly aggravated the adjustment pains which the
industrial revolution has forced upon woman as compared with those
of man, whose traditional sphere is bounded only by the humanly
possible. This attitude has, moreover, been an important factor in
determining the .woman's choice of occupations.
The proper sphere of woman has long been a subject of discussion.
At least as early as 1829 opinions upon the subject were divided
along practically the same lines as to-day. A writer in the Boston
14 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTBY.
Courier asserted, from the radical viewpoint, that women should have
their full share of the labor of the world and should be adequately
rewarded. He commented upon the fact that "powerful necessity is
rapidly breaking down ancient barriers, and woman is fast encroach-
ing, if the assumption of a right may be deemed an encroachment,
upon the exclusive dominion of man." "Custom and long habit/'
he said, "have closed the doors of very many employments against
the industry and perseverance of woman. She has been taught to
deem so many occupations masculine, and made only for men, that
excluded, by a mistaken deference to the world's opinion, from
innumerable labors, most happily adapted to her physical constitu-
tion, the competition for the few places left open to her has occasioned
a reduction in the estimated value of her labor, until it has fallen
below the minimum, and is no longer adequate to present comfort-
able subsistence, much less to the necessary provision against age
and infirmity or the everyday contingencies of mortality. "a In
1830 the same paper asserted that "the times are out of joint"
because "the women are assuming the prerogatives and employments
which, from immemorial time, have been considered the attributes
and duties of the other sex," and suggested that soon "our sons must
be educated and prepare to obtain a livelihood in those dignified and
more masculine professions of seamstresses, milliners, cooks, wet
nurses, and chambermaids."6
The National Trades' Union was decidedly opposed to the employ-
ment of women in industry, and one of its leaders, William English,
in a Fourth-of-July oration before the Philadelphia Trades' Union,
hoped that the time might soon come "when our wives, no longer
doomed to servile labor, will be the companions of our fireside and
the instructors of our children; and our daughters, reared to virtue
and usefulness, become the solace of our declining years." He did
not consider it possible for women to "recede from labor all at once,"
but urged them to form trades unions and raise their wages until
"half the labor now performed will suffice to live upon. * * * And
the less you do," he added, "the more there will be for the men to do,
and the better they will be paid for doing it, and ultimately, you will
be what you ought to be, free from the performance of that kind
of labor which was designed for man alone to perform."6
Again in 1866 the Daily Evening Voice complained that, though
women rejoice in men's successes, they themselves receive from men
"cold justice, perhaps, but no enthusiasm." "Thus isolated," said
the Voice, "she labors under a disadvantage. It is poor work to
succeed under the frown and cold shoulder of half the creation. "d
a Boston Courier, July 13, 1829.
6 Idem, August 25, 1830.
c Radical Reformer and Workingman's Advocate, Philadelphia, August 1, 1835.
* Daily Evening Voice, Boston, January 27, 1866. This was a labor paper.
CHAPTER I. — INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 15
Against this hardening force of tradition have worked, however,
two other great forces, the need of women for remunerative employ-
ment and the need of employers for cheap labor. And hand in hand
with these two forces have come vast improvements in machinery,
in motive power, and in division of labor, as well as other historical
changes, such as wars, industrial depressions, and the growth of trade
unions with their accompaniment of strikes.
CAUSES OF THE ENTRANCE OF WOMEN INTO INDUSTRY.
Complaints of machinery as a means of bringing women and
children into industry were not lacking in the early labor press.
This point was repeatedly urged, illustrated mainly by English
examples, by the writer of a series of articles on "Labor-saving
machinery" in the Mechanics' Free Press in 1829. Speaking of
Philadelphia, he said: "Look at some of our city machinery — young
girls are earning a scanty pittance, by standing many hours in a day
attending the monotonous motion, till their faculties of body and
mind are in a fair way of being benumbed." His chief complaint
was against child labor, but he asserted that "so far, the effect of
machinery ha? been to impose burdens on sex and age, not necessary
in former periods/' What became of "the adult workmen who were
heretofore engaged in the fabrication of staples, now fabricated by
women and children" was, he said, "a gloomy picture, though we
are forced to admit that they are not necessarily thrown out of all
employment."0
Machinery, combined with division of labor and the substitution
of water, steam, and electric power for human muscles, has certainly
made it possible to employ the unskilled labor of women in occupa-
tions formerly carried on wholly by men. Machinery, however, has
as yet affected only slightly the broad lines of division between
woman's work and man's work. And especially upon its first intro-
duction the sex of the employees is rarely at once changed to any
considerable extent. Thus when spinning machinery was first
introduced women and children were employed to operate it. Later
women became the power-loom weavers. The sewing machine, too,
has always been operated largely by women. On the other hand,
most of the machinery of the iron and steel industry is operated by
men. In watchmaking, to be sure, formerly man's work, a large
part of the machinery is now managed by women. But division of
labor, itself made possible by the machinery, is probably the primary
cause of the introduction of women into the manufacture of watches.
Division of labor, indeed, which has always accompanied and
frequently preceded machinery, is probably even more responsible
a Mechanics' Free Press, Philadelphia, November 7, 1829. This was the first labor
paper published in the United States.
16 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNEKS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
than the latter for the introduction of women into new occupations.
The most striking single tendency in manufacturing industries has
been toward the division and the subdivision of processes, thereby
making possible the use of woman's work, as well as of unskilled
man's work, in larger proportion to that of skilled operatives. A
more recent tendency toward the combination of several machines
into one has even been checked, in some cases, because a competent
machinist would have to be hired. Unless the advantage of the
complicated mechanism is very great, hi many industries simpler
machinery, which can be easily run by women, is preferred.
As a result, both of machinery and of division of labor, the actual
occupations of women, within industries, do not differ so widely as
do the occupations of men within the same industries. It frequently
happens, indeed, that the work of a woman in one industry is almost
precisely the same as that of another woman in an entirely different
industry.
Other historical forces have brought about changes in the occupa-
tions of women. Often, especially in the printing trades and in cigar
making, women have been introduced as strike breakers. On the
other hand trade unions have in some places been strong enough to
prevent the introduction of women in industries to which they were
well adapted. Usually, however, this has been only for a short period.
The scarcity of labor supply in particular places or at particular
times has often been responsible for the use of women's work. Thus
during the early years of the Republic the employment of women in
manufacturing industries was doubtless greatly accelerated by the
scarcity and high price of other labor. This, too, was doubtless largely
responsible for the fact that, in the early years of the cotton industry,
a larger proportion of women was employed in the cotton mills of
Massachusetts and New Hampshire than in those of Rhode Island,
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. One of the remedies frequently
suggested in the thirties and forties for the evils under which working
women suffered was that "the excess of spinsters" should be trans-
ported to the places where " there is a deficiency of women."0
The Civil War was another force which not only drove into gainful
occupations a large number of women, but compelled many changes
in their employments. In 1869 it was estimated that there were
25,000 working women in Boston who had been forced by the war
to earn their living.6 The war, too, caused a large number of cot-
ton factories to shut down, and thousands of women thus thrown
out of employment were obliged to seek other occupations.
Similar to war in its influence, and in some ways more direful,
has been the influence of industrial depressions. The industrial
<* Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, January 4, 1832, and New
York Daily Tribune, March 7, 1845.
& Workingman's Advocate, Chicago and Cincinnati, May 8, 1869.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 17
depression which began in 1837, for example, temporarily destroyed
the newly-arisen wholesale clothing manufacture, and caused untold
hardships to the tailoresses and seamstresses of New York and Phila-
delphia. These women turned, naturally, to any occupation in which
it was possible for them to engage. Industrial depressions, too, like
war, have taken away from thousands of women the support of the
men upon whom they were dependent and have forced them to
snatch at any occupation which promised them a pittance.
EXPANSION OF WOMAN'S SPHERE.
As a result of these factors and forces and in many cases of others
less general in their operation, woman's sphere of employment has
been greatly expanded during the past hundred years. The number
of occupations open to women during the early part of the nineteenth
century has, however, been greatly underestimated. Harriet Mar-
tineau in 1836 mentioned eight occupations as open to women
in this country — teaching, needlework, keeping boarders, work in
mills, shoe binding, typesetting, bookbinding, and domestic service.
But in the same year the committee of the National Trades' Union,
which was appointed to inquire into the evils of female labor, reported
that in the New England states, "printing, saddling, brush making,
tailoring, whip making, and many other trades are in a certain
measure governed by females," and added that of the 58 societies
composing the Trades' Union of Philadelphia 24 were "seriously
affected by female labor."0
As early as 1820, indeed, women were employed in at least 75
different kinds of manufacturing establishments,6 and in 1832 women
employees were found in about 20 other industries.0 The census
of 1850, moreover, enumerated nearly 175 different industries in
which women were employed. In 1864, among the 6,422 women
applicants for employment to the New York Working Women's
Protective Union, there were representatives of 50 different trades
or occupations.^ And in 1867 this union reported that "during the
three years of our active operations, we have been the means of intro-
ducing 30 females into seven branches of labor of a mechanical char-
acter not generally occupied by them."* In New York City in 1870
o National Laborer, Philadelphia, November 12, 1836. Abbott, Women in Indus-
try, p. 66, estimated, after a study of three reports belonging to the period from
1820 to 1840, that at least 100 occupations were open to women at that time. Re-
printed in Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. VI, p. 285.
& American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223. (Statistics of manufac-
turing industries collected by the census of 1820.)
c Documents Relative to the Manufactures of the United States. Executive Docu-
ments, Twenty -second Congress, first session, Vols. I and II.
d Daily Evening Voice, December 15. 1864.
« Daily Evening Voice, March 2, 1867. This organization appears not to have fur-
nished domestic servants. (Daily Evening Voice, May 20, 1865.)
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol 9 2
18 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
there were said to be some 75 employments at which women worked.0
The next year, 1871, the Revolution called attention to the need for a
labor exchange for women in New York who were engaged in other
occupations than housework — those employed in composing rooms,
bookbinderies, ornamental-china establishments, places where arti-
ficial flowers were made, etc.6
During the period for which statistics on the subject are available,
the proportion of all the gainfully employed women engaged in "agri-
cultural pursuits" c decreased from 21.6 per cent in 1870 to 18. 4 per
cent in 1900, and the proportion engaged in "domestic and personal
service" decreased from 58.1 percent in 1870, or 44. 6 per cent in 1880, d
to 39.4 per cent in 1900. At the same time the proportion engaged
in "professional service" increased from 6.7 per cent in 1880 to 8.1
per cent in 1900, the proportion engaged in "manufacturing and
mechanical pursuits" increased from 19.3 per cent in 1870 to 24.7
per cent in 1900, and the proportion engaged in "trade and transpor-
tation" increased from 1 per cent in 1870 to 9.4 per cent in 1900.*
The importance of agriculture and of "domestic and personal
service" has evidently decreased, while the importance of "manu-
facturing and mechanical pursuits," "trade and transportation,"
and "professional service" since 1880, when this division was first
introduced, has increased. Two other facts, however, are notice-
able— first, that the importance of the group "manufacturing and
mechanical pursuits" has changed very little since 1880 and has even
decreased since 1890; and, second, that the most pronounced increase
has been in the group "trade and transportation," in which only 1
per cent in 1870 and nearly 10 per cent in 1900 of the women bread-
winners were employed. In general the movement has been the same
among the native and the foreign born/ and much the same among
the married as among the single women. 0
« American Workman, Boston, August 20, 1870. The Woman's Journal, Boston and
Chicago, February 26, 1870. Quoted from the New York Evening Post.
6 The Revolution, New York, January 12, 1871. This was the organ of the woman
suffrage movement.
c Agricultural pursuits and professional service are not considered as part of this
study except for their indirect influence on women's work in other occupations.
Nevertheless it is of interest to note the employment of German women in harvest
work in northern Illinois and Wisconsin, at $1 a day, recorded in the-New York Weekly
Tribune, August 15, 1863, and the employment of Norwegian women in the same work
in Minnesota, at "the same wages as men," mentioned in the Revolution, September
17, 1868.
d The group "professional service" was included in "domestic and personal service "
in 1870, thus affecting comparisons of the latter group. See Table IV, p. 246.
e See Table IV, p. 246. It will be observed that these figures refer to females 10 years
of age and over, while in the previous tables only women 15 or 16 years of age and
over are included.
/See Tables V and VI, pp. 246 and 247.
(7 See Table VII, p. 248.
CHAPTER I.— INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 19
For manufacturing industries the statistics of the employment
of women date back to 1850, and for special industries, such as
cotton manufacture, or single States, as Massachusetts, even earlier.0
In 1850 and 1860 the census of manufactures contained figures for
"male employees" and "female employees," according to which
23.3 per cent in 1850 and 20.7 per cent in 1860 of all the employees in
manufacturing industries were females of all ages. The age dis-
tinction was added in 1870 and in that year it appeared that women
16 years of age and over constituted 15.8 per cent of all the employees
in manufacturing industries.6 In 1880 the proportion increased to
19.4 per cent, dropping again in 1890 to 18.9 per cent, and again
increasing in 1900 to the same figure as in 1880, 19.4 per cent. In
1905 women over 16 years of age constituted 19.5 per cent of all the
employees in manufacturing industries, exclusive of the hand trades,
which were included in other censuses.0
When, however, the occupations in which women are engaged are
considered with reference to the relative number of women employed
in each, at different periods, it is evident that the vast majority of
working women have remained within the limits of their traditional
iield. Table IX, which is a summary for various groups of manufac-
turing industries,^ shows that in every census year considerably more
° As early, indeed, as 1820 the census of manufactures collected figures in regard to
the employment of men, women, and boys and girls, but its results were evidently
not considered of sufficient value to be worth a summary. Roughly speaking, it was
found that about 10 per cent of all the employees in manufacturing industries were
women and about 24 per cent were boys and girls, but it was not stated what were
the ages of the latter. (American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223, 291-
297.)
6 Even by adding all the children this proportion little more than equals that given
for 1860 and does not equal that given for 1850. This is, however, the first year for
which the statistics may be considered as fairly trustworthy.
c See also Table VIII, p. 249, for an analysis of the employment of women in manu-
facturing industries by geographical divisions.
<*The industries are grouped in Table IX as textile industries, clothing industries,
food and kindred products, liquors and beverages, and other manufacturing indus-
tries, including tobacco and cigars, paper and printing, iron and steel, etc. As far as
possible the groups, as given in the Twelfth Census (1900), have been used, but the
census group "textiles" has been divided, the various branches of clothing manufac-
ture being taken out to make up, together with "boots and shoes" from the division
"leather and its finished products" and a number of industries from the group "mis-
cellaneous industries," a new group, "clothing industries." See the footnotes to
Table IX, p. 250.
The figures for 1850 and 1860 refer to all "female hands," regardless of age; those
for 1850, 1860, and 1870 have been grouped by the author, and those for 1905 were
collected upon a somewhat different basis than previously used, the principal differ-
ence being the omission in 1905 of all hand trades. For these and other reasons the
figures are only roughly comparable. For a resum£ of reasons for the inexactness of
all comparisons down to 1890, see the Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part I,
p. Ixi.
20 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNEKS WOMEN IN INDUSTEY.
than half of all the women employed in manufacturing industries
have been in the first two groups, textile and clothing industries.
These industries and also, in large part at least, those included
in the group "food and kindred products" and "liquors and bev-
erages " have as household industries been theirs from time immemo-
rial. But women have been driven, by the industrial forces already
in part analyzed, into many occupations formerly considered as
belonging exclusively to man's sphere. Thus, in the manufacture of
tobacco and cigars in 1850, 13.9 per cent, and in 1905, 41.6 per cent,
of all the employees were women, and in the manufacture of "metals
and metal products other than iron and steel" the proportion of
women has increased during the same period from 3.4 per cent to
14.2 per cent, and in "other manufacturing industries" from 3.6 per
cent to 13.8 per cent.0
It is evident that, on the whole, there has been a certain expansion
of woman's sphere — a decrease in the proportion employed in certain
traditional occupations, such as "servants and waitresses," "seam-
stresses," and "textile workers," but an increase in the proportion
employed in most other industries, many of them not originally
considered as within woman's domain. There has been, for instance,
an increase in the proportion of women engaged as "bookkeepers and
accountants," as "saleswomen," as "stenographers and typewriters/'
and in "other manufacturing and mechanical pursuits," and this
movement has affected, roughly speaking, all elements, according
to nativity or conjugal condition, of the population of working women.
HISTORY OF LABOR CONDITIONS.
The history of the conditions under which women have worked
in this country is a history of the relative importance of wage labor
in the home and in the factory, of sanitary and other health-affecting
conditions, of hours, of wages, of the effect of the employment of
women upon men's work and wages, of the relation of charity "to
woman's work, and of the industrial education and efficiency of
women.
HOME AND FACTORY WORK.
In general, it may be said that during the past century the
amount of home work of women for pay has steadily decreased
and the amount of factory work has steadily increased. The shoe
binders, who loom so large in the Massachusetts industrial census
of 1837, were almost all home workers, but the women engaged in
boot and shoe making to-day are nearly all working in factories.
In the sewing trades, though the change has not been so complete,
a similar movement from the home to the workshop and factory
« See Table IX, p. 250.
CHAPTER I. — INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 21
has been going on. Home workers have become sweat-shop workers
and sweat-shop workers are gradually becoming factory workers.
So long ago as now to be almost forgotten a similar transformation
took place in the textile industries. Indeed, this is the general
tendency of the employment of both men and women in manufac-
turing industries. Independent domestic production has practically
become a thing of the past.0 But the history of woman's work
shows that their wage labor under the domestic system has often
been under worse conditions than their wage labor under the
factory system. The hours of home workers have been longer,
their wages lower, and the sanitary conditions surrounding them
more unwholesome than has generally been the case with factory
workers. The movement away from home work can hardly, then,
be regretted.
GENERAL CONDITIONS OF LIFE AND LAB OB.
The conditions under which the working women of this country
have toiled have long made them the object of commiseration.
Mathew Carey devoted a large part of the last years of his life, from
1828 to 1839, to agitation in their behalf. Again and again he
pointed out in newspaper articles, pamphlets, and speeches that
the wages of working women in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
and Boston were utterly insufficient for their support; that their
food and lodging were miserably poor and unwholesome; and that
the hours they were obliged to work were almost beyond human
endurance.
In a letter in regard to the strike of the women shoe binders in
Philadelphia in 1836, he declared, for instance, that he was con-
vinced that many of the working women of Philadelphia were so
inadequately paid that their wages, if they had children, even when
fully employed, were "barely sufficient to procure them a scant
supply of the very commonest food and raiment; that they are
frequently very partially employed, and sometimes wholly unem-
ployed, particularly in the dreary season of winter; and that in
such cases they suffer intense distress, and are actually reduced to a
state of pauperism. " b
a As late, however, as 1865 the Census of New York State, pp. 411-414, reported
under "miscellaneous manufacturing industries" the following articles which must
have been made in part by women: One hundred and forty-one blankets, 308 pairs of
boots and shoes, 34,559 yards of carpets, 31,807$ yards of rag carpets, 614 yards of fulled
cloth, 871 yards of flannel cloth, 2,287 yards of linen cloth, 2,791$ pounds of yarn,
1,070 pairs of buckskin mittens, 2,996 pairs of wool mittens, 24,766 pairs of socks,
7,385 pairs of socks and mittens, 38 shawls, 171,229 pounds of dried apples, 42,851
gallons of rhubarb wine, 120 gallons of blackberry wine, etc.
b Pennsylvania^ Philadelphia, May 2, 1836. The Pennsylvanian was not a labor
paper, but sympathized with the labor movement.
22 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN TN INDUSTRY.
In 1845 an investigation of "female labor" in New York, used
as the basis of a series of articles in the New York Tribune, devel-
oped " a most deplorable degree of servitude, privation, and misery
among this helpless and dependent class of people," including
" hundreds and thousands" of shoe binders, type rubbers, artificial-
flower makers, match-box makers, straw braiders, etc., who "drudge?
on in miserably cooped-up, ill-ventilated cellars and garrets, pining
away, heartbroken, in want, disease, and wretchedness." ° Said
the Tribune : b
In addition to the constant supply to the ranks of these classes
furnished by the poor population of our city, poor girls continually
flock to the city from every part of the country, either because their
friends are dead and they have no home, or because they have
certain vague dreams of the charms of city life. Arriving here, they
soon find how bitterly they have deceived themselves, and how
rashly they have entered a condition where it is almost impossible
for them to subsist, and where want and starvation are their only
companions. They have been educated and reared in such a manner
as to render the idea of servitude quite unendurable, and their only
resort is the needle or some similar employment. Here they find
the demand for work greatly oversupplied, and competition so keen
that they are at the mercy of employers, and are obliged to snatch
at the privilege of working on any terms. They find that by working
from 15 to 18 hours a day they can not possibly earn more than
from $1 to $3 a week, and this, deducting the time they are out of
employment every year, will barely serve to furnish them the scantiest
and poorest food, which, from its monotony and its unhealthy quality,
induces disgust, loathing, and disease. They have thus absolutely
nothing left for clothes, recreation, sickness, books, or intellectual
improvement, and the buoyancy and exquisite animality of youth
become a slow torturing fever from which death is a too-welcome
relief. Their frames are bent by incessant and stooping toil, their
health destroyed by want of rest and proper exercise, and their
minds as effectually stunted, brutalized, and destroyed over their
monotonous tasks as if they were doomed to count the bricks in a
prison wall — for what is life to them but a fearful and endless impris-
onment, with all its horrors and privations ?
Again in 1869 the working women of Boston, in a petition to the
Massachusetts legislature for the establishment of "garden home-
steads" for their class, asserted that they were insufficiently paid,
scantily clothed, poorly fed, and badly lodged, that their physical
health, if not already undermined by long hours and bad conditions
of work, was rapidly becoming so, and that their moral natures were
being undermined by lack of proper society and by their inability
to attend church on account of the want of proper clothing and the
necessity, being constantly occupied throughout the week, "to bring
a Voice of Industry, Fitchburg and Lowell, Mass., August 28, 1845. This was the
organ of the factory operatives.
b New York Daily Tribune, August 19, 1845.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 23
up the arrears of our household duties by working on the Lord's
Day." «
HOURS OF LABOE.
Hours, however, except for home workers, have been reduced by
legislation. In the early part of the nineteenth century from 12 to 13
hours a day was common, and it is safe to say that 12 hours was about
the average day's work in factories. Gradually, through legislation,
these hours have been reduced to perhaps nearer 10 a day. The
change, too, from home to factory labor has tended to reduce hours,
for women home workers have always lived up to the old adage that
" woman's work is never done."
WAGES AND UNEMPLOYMENT.
The low wages paid to women and the inequality of men's and
women's wages have always been the chief causes of complaint.
The National Laborer estimated in 1836 that "the compensation of
a female for her labor, in every branch of business, does not average
37^ cents a day." 6 Twenty-five cents a day was the wage of thou-
sands of sewing women at this time. The New York Journal of Com-
merce, however, asserted that at the beginning of the century "50
cents a week was a common price for female labor and 50 cents then
was for their use not worth as much as 25 cents now." c In 1845 the
New York Tribune estimated that of the 50,000 working women in
that city one-half were employed as seamstresses, book folders, in
factories, etc., at wages averaging less than $2 per week. Thousands,
said this editorial, could not earn more than $1.50 a week. d
The average wages paid to women in New York in 1863, taking all
the trades together, were said to have been about $2 a week and in
many instances only 20 cents a day, while the hours ranged from 11
to 16 a day/ The price of board, which before the war had been
about $1.50 a week, had been raised by 1864 to from $2.50 to $3/
During the war period, indeed, according to Mr. Mitchell, the wages
of women increased less, on the whole, than the wages of men,0
while their cost of living increased out of all proportion to their
a Workingman's Advocate, April 24, 1869.
*> National Laborer, April 23, 1836.
c New York Journal of Commerce, June 23, 1835. The Journal of Commerce • as
decidely hostile to the labor movement.
d New York Daily Tribune, July 9, 1845. Horace Greeley, editor.
« Fincher's Trades' Review, Philadelphia, November 21, 1863. This was a labor
paper. Practically the same statement was made in 1867 by Mayor Hoffman before
a mass meeting of citizens in behalf of the Working Women's Protective Union (Daily
Evening Voice, March 2, 1867), and again in 1870 in a "Letter from a vrc^Ing
woman" to the New York Tribune of March 29, 1870.
/Idem, April 2, 1864.
9 Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, p. 307.
24 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
wages. This fact was recognized, at least, by the labor papers of the
period. " While the wages of workingmen have been increased more
than 100 per cent/7 said the Daily Evening Voice, in commenting
upon the report for 1864 of the New York Working Women's Pro-
tective Union,0 "and complaint is still made that this is not sufficient
to cover the increased cost of food and fuel, the average rate of wages
for female labor has not been raised more than 20 per cent since the
war was inaugurated; and yet the poor widow is obliged to pay as
much for a loaf of bread or a pail of coal as the woman who has a
husband or a stalwart son to assist her. In many trades the rate of
wages has been lowered during the year, until it has become a mere
pittance, while in other occupations the prices paid to females are
generally insufficient to maintain them comfortably."
By 1870, however, the wages of women in the 75 employments in
which they were said to be engaged in New York were given as from
$3 to $8 per week.6
One of the causes of complaint of the organized working women of
Boston in 1869 was "the present fragmentary nature, the insuffi-
ciency, and great precariousness of the poor working women's labors/7
which "render it impossible for them to procure the common neces-
saries of existence, or make any provision for sickness and old age.77
It was complained that real wages were lower than they had been
twenty-five years before,0 while board had risen from $2.25 per week
in 1840 to $6 per week by 1870.d In the same year Miss Phclps
testified before the Massachusetts legislative committee on hours of
labor that, though some women in Boston received $1 to $1.50 a day,
a far greater number earned $2 to $2.50 per week and many only
$1.75 per week.*
In 1887 it was said that in New York City 9,000 and in Chicago
over 5,000 women earned less than $3 per week./ And in 1895 a
resolution of the assembly of the State of New York asserted that in
the city of New York there were 100,000 women, on many of whom
families were dependent, working for an average wage of 60 cents a
day. A large proportion, it was said, received much smaller sums.0
a Daily Evening Voice, December 15, 1864.
& American Workman, Boston, August 20, 1870. The Woman's Journal, Boston and
Chicago, February 26, 1870. Quoted from the New York Evening Post.
cldem, June 26, 1869. Resolutions adopted by the Industrial Order of the People
and presented to the Labor Reform Convention by Miss Phelps.
dThe Revolution, January 13, 1870. Letter from Jennie Collins.
« American Workman, May 1, 1869.
/Industrial Leader, July 9, 1887.
0 Report and Testimony, Special Committee of the Assembly Appointed to Investi-
gate the Condition of Female Labor in the City of New York, 1896, p. 1.
CHAPTER I. — INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 25
History teaches that working women have suffered fully as much
and perhaps more than workingmen from unemployment. Especially
is this true in the sewing trades, nearly all of which are seasonal in
character. Domestic servants, who have always been hi great
demand, have long had employment agencies to aid them in their
search for work,0 but little aid has been given the women engaged
in manufacturing industries, except by wholly or partially charitable
societies, which have given them work, often at starvation prices.
The Working Women's Protective Association of New York, it is true,
during the three years ending in April, 1868, obtained employment
for 3,222 young women,6 and during the year 1870 is said to have pro-
cured employment for about 2,000.c But in 1869 the applications for
employment were given as 16,625 and the places filled as only
3,£18.d While these figures may not be strictly accurate, there can be
no doubt that there was in these years an enormous amount of un-
employment among women workers.
In the sewing trades, since the early part of the nineteenth century,
the proportion of workers who have been without steady employ-
ment has always been large. Piecework and a fluctuating demand for
labor, combined with a constant oversupply, have been largely
responsible. Even in other trades, however, women, partly because
of their lack of training and skill, have continually suffered from
unemployment. In 1890, according to the census figures, 12.7 per
cent, and in 1900, 23.3 per cent of all the females engaged in gainful
occupations were unemployed during some portion of the census
year.*
The inequality of the wages received by men and by women has
long been the subject of complaint. In 1829 an "intelligent and
respectable lady of New Jersey," in a letter addressed to Mathew
Carey, urged that women, as well as men, often have families to
support, and that seeing that women labor equally with the men —
that their life is of no longer duration — showing an equality of
suffering — that then* necessities are as great (for I will not allow that
the clothing of a poor woman, properly clad, is of less cost than a
a The Corporation of New York in 1834 passed an ordinance that there should be a
place appointed in every market for persons who wanted employment to meet those
who wanted to hire. Certain hours of attendance were fixed for men and others for
women. (New York Evening Post, Mar. 28, 1834.) This was apparently the first
"public employment office," and appears to have been for servants. A society "for
procuring girls situations without expense," is said to have existed in Boston about
1850, which, according to the account, placed about a hundred girls a day. (Mooney,
Nine Years in America, 1850, pp. 118, 119.)
& Workingman's Advocate, June 6, 1868.
cThe Revolution, December 15, 1870.
dldem, January 21, 1869.
« Twelfth Census, Occupations, 1900, p. ccxxxi.
26 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
man's) and that they are 50 per cent more moral and industrious than
the men — they are fully entitled to an equality of wages/' "Give
woman bread, clothing, and shelter enough for her children," she
exclaimed, "and your prisons will be turned into workshops, and your
houses of refuge will be converted into schools. "a
One of the arguments for an increase of wages used by the women
shoe binders of Lynn in 1834, was that, as few mechanics could
earn more than $1 a day, "the wife of the mechanic should receive a
sufficient remuneration for her services, in order that she may assist
her husband to defray their expenses, and to provide for their
children." Daughters, too, should receive wages sufficient to enable
them to pay "a suitable price for their board, and to support them-
selves respectably and independently.6
On the other hand, a writer in the New York Evening Post,c
during this early discussion of women's wages, seriously asserted
that the only way to make husbands sober and industrious was to
keep women dependent by means of insufficient wages. "I once
lived in a place," he said, "where there was such a demand for
female labor, of a particular description, that the wages of the women
would support the family. The consequence was, that the town was
filled with the most lazy, drunken, worthless set of men I ever knew."
Upon which Robert Dale Owen sarcastically remarked that in order
to reform the habits of the husbands, this writer proposed to keep
women's wages "so low that a widow, if she attempted to support
herself and children, must starve. "d
That working women should receive the same pay as men for the
same work has long been the desire of trade-unionists. Though not
expressly stated, it was implied in the resolution of the National
Trades' Union in 1835, which complained that "the extreme low prices
given for female labor, afford scarcely sufficient to satisfy the necessary
wants of life, and create a destructive competition with the male
laborer." « In 1836, the National Trades' Union acknowledged that
woman's work in industry was necessary in "the present state of
society," but recommended the women to organize and strike for
higher wages/ A generation later the National Labor Union, more-
over, repeatedly passed resolutions expressing sympathy for the
"sewing women and daughters of toil," urging them to unite in trade-
a Free Enquirer, New York, May 6, 1829. This was a free thought weekly edited
by Robert Dale Owen and Frances Wright and was in sympathy with the labor
movement.
&Lynn (Mass.) Record, January 8, 1834.
c Quoted in the Free Enquirer, September 23, 1829.
<*Free Enquirer, September 23, 1829.
« National Trades' Union, New York, October 10, 1835. Reprinted in Documentary
History of American Industrial Society, Vol. VI, p. 251.
/National Laborer, November 12, 1836. Reprinted in Documentary History of
American Industrial Society, Vol. VI, p. 281.
CHAPTER T. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 27
unions, and demanding for them "equal pay for equal work." The
New England, Massachusetts, New York, and other labor conventions
of the time passed similar resolutions. In 1868, too, the National
Labor Union passed a resolution urging Congress and all the state
legislatures to pass laws securing equal pay for equal work to all
women in public employment.0
The actual relation between the wages of men and women was
given in 1833 as 4 to 1 — "for instance, a man receives $1, whilst the
woman only gets 25 cents."6 About the same time it was asserted
that three-fourths of the working women of Philadelphia "do not
receive as much wages for an entire week's work, 13 or 14 hours per
day, as journeymen receive in same branches for a single day of 10
hours."6 In 1868 the Workingman's Advocate declared that
"women do not get, in the average, one-fourth the wages that men
receive." d About this time a report presented to the New York
Working Women's Association stated that rag picking was the only
business in that city "where women have equal opportunities with
men." « And a little later Virginia Penny estimated that women's
wages in the industrial branches were from one-third to one-half those
of men. f
DISPLACEMENT AND EFFECT OF WOMEN'S WORK ON MEN'S WAGES.
As for the effect of the employment of women upon the work and
wages of men, it is exceedingly doubtful, in spite of popular opinion,
whether women have, in the long run, displaced men. It has not
been possible, in this study, owing to the lack of material, to make
any detailed investigation of the difficult subject of displacement,
but a broad survey of industrial history appears to justify certain
general conclusions. That women have been the cause of reductions
in the wages of men is more probable, though it is a serious question
whether, if they had never been engaged in industrial labor,
employers would not have found other sources of cheap, unskilled
labor. The mere fact, however, that they have worked at wages
so much lower than those of men has undoubtedly been a menace to
the man's standard.
The gainful employment of women, however, must be regarded
rather as an industrial readjustment than as a substitution of one
a Proceedings of the National Labor Union, 1868, p. 24. Reprinted in Documentary
History of American Industrial Society, Vol. IX, p. 205.
b Workingmen's Shield, Cincinnati, January 12, 1833.
c Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 13, p. 184. This is a collection of about 100 volumes
of newspaper clippings made by Mathew Carey, and is now in the Ridgway Branch
of the Library Company, Philadelphia. Unfortunately the clippings are not dated,
nor are the names given of the papers from which they were extracted.
d Workingman's Advocate, June 6, 1868.
« The Revolution, December 31, 1868.
/ Penny, Think and Act, p. 84.
28 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
sex for the other. To a certain extent women have displaced men.
Forced in part out of their traditional sphere by machinery pri-
marily, and secondarily by men introduced as the result of the read-
justment due to machinery, they have followed the machine into
other occupations not theirs by tradition. But much of their problem
of employment has been solved by the growth of new industries,
which, of course, men have claimed, but in many of which women
have entered Almost if not quite from the beginning and have suc-
cessfully held their own.
The menace of woman's low wage scale, however, was early felt
by the leaders of the trade-union movement. In 1836 the com-
mittee on female labor of the National Trades' Union declared "the
system of female labor, as practiced in our cities and manufacturing
towns, * * * the most disgraceful escutcheon on the character of
American freemen, and one, if not checked by some superior cause,
will entail ignorance, misery and degradation on our children to the
end of time. " They complained, first, of the injury to the health and
morals of "the young females/' and, second, of "the ruinous compe-
tition brought in active opposition to male labor," for "when the
females are found capable of performing duty generally performed
by the men, as a natural consequence, from the cheapness of their
habits and dependent situation, they acquire complete Control of that
particular branch of labor." The wages of a woman's labor, they
asserted, were scarce sufficient to keep her alive, and were each
year being reduced, and she should realize, they said, "that she in a
measure stands in the way of the male when attempting to raise his
prices or equalize his labor; and that there her efforts to sustain her-
self and family are actually the same as tying a stone around the
neck of her natural protector, man, and destroying him with the
weight she has brought to his assistance. This is the true and
natural consequence of female labor, when carried beyond the neces-
sities of the family." The number of females employed in the
United States "in opposition to male labor" was estimated as over
140,000, "who labor on an average from 12 to 15 hours per day. "
The committee recommended the formation of women's unions, and
also that females "under a certain age" be forbidden by law "from
being employed in large factories, and then only under the care and
superintendence of a parent." °
Mathew Carey's remedy, moreover, for the evils of women's work —
to "multiply descriptions of labor," or seek out new occupations for
them — was seriously objected to by the trade-unionists of that day.
At the 1835 convention of the National Trades' Union a resolution
was passed recommending that the workingmen oppose, "by all
honest means, the multiplying of all description of labor for females —
o National Laborer, November 12, 1836. Reprinted in Documentary History of
American Industrial Society, Vol. VI, p. 281-291.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 29
inasmuch, as the competition it creates with the males, tends inevita-
bly to impoverish both." ° "Any project which introduces females
into employments belonging to the male operative, " said the National
Laborer, "necessarily ruins his occupation and forces him to resort to
some other mode of procuring a subsistence. The prices given to
females are generally one-fourth of what the men receive — and thus
a destructive competition commences between the male and female
which must inevitably end in the impoverishment of both." The
trades-unionists of that day also objected to woman's work on the
ground of its "effect upon the character of the female, and the con-
sequences to society." They proposed as a remedy that "the com-
pensation of the male operative be raised so as to enable him to train
up in a proper manner his own family, and then the isolated females
may pursue these branches of industry which appertain exclusively
to their sex. " 6
A generation later the labor papers complained of "a persistent
effort, on the part of capitalists and employers, to introduce females
into various departments of labor heretofore filled by the opposite
sex." c "After trying many experiments in vain," said Fincher's
Trades' Review, "to keep down wages to the old standard, when
paper and gold were equal in value, they now attempt to substitute
female for male labor." The result of this must be, said the Review,
to bring down the price of labor "to the female standard, which is
generally less than one-half the sum paid to men." This forcing of
women into men's occupations was not, it was said, any advantage
to the women. The trouble with women's work was not that it was
insufficient in quantity, that new avenues of employment were
needed, but that it was not fairly compensated. And if the effort
to substitute female for male labor was successful it was predicted
that it would "take but a few years to reduce their wages for me-
chanical labor down to the pittance now received for needle-work." d
The Address of the National Labor Congress to the Workingmen of
the United States, issued in 1867, deplored the prejudice against the
employment of female labor and declared that the position of the
laboring classes on this point had been grossly misrepresented.
"They have objected," it said, "and naturally, too, to the introduc-
tion of female labor when used as a means to depreciate the value of
their own, and accomplish the selfish ends of an employer, when under
the specious plea of disinterested ' philanthropy,' the ulterior object
has not been the elevation of women, but the degradation of man,
as has been the case in almost every instance, where the labor of one
a National Trades' Union, October 10, 1835. Reprinted in Documentary History
of American Industrial Society, Vol. VI, p. 251.
b National Laborer, April 23, 1836.
c Fincher's Trades' Review, January 28, 1865.
<* Idem, October 1, 1864.
30 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
has been brought into competition with the other. We claim that
if they are capable to fill the position now occupied by the stronger
sex — and in many instances they are eminently qualified to do so —
they are entitled to be treated as their equals, and receive tbe same
compensation for such services. That they do not is prima facie
evidence that their employment is entirely a question of self-interest,
from which all other considerations are excluded. Why should the
seamstress or female factory operative receive one-third or one-half
the amount demanded by and paid to men for the performance of .the
same work ? Yet that such is the case, is a fact too well established
to require corroboration."0
Again in 1868 the president of the National Labor Union, in his
opening address to the congress, referred to "the extent to which
female labor is introduced into many trades" as "a serious question/'
and stated that "the effect of introducing female labor is to under-
mine prices, that character of labor being usually employed, unjustly
to the woman, at a lower rate than is paid for male labor on the same
kind of work." He also spoke of "the damaging physical effects and
demoralizing tendencies of the prevailing system," and suggested that
the Government should be induced to set "the example of equal
compensation for male and female labor."6
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION AND EFFICIENCY OF WOMEN.
Apprenticeship for girls has never meant any thorough training.
Even in colonial days girl apprentices were rarely taught a trade,
though sometimes their indentures specified that they were to be
taught to spin and sew. But generally, apprenticeship meant simply
a hiring out at domestic service till of age. In the manufacturing
industries, too, apprenticeship has usually meant to girls merely work
and no industrial education. In many cases, indeed, it has been used
as a means of procuring cheap labor, and the girls have been dis-
charged, as soon as their term was over, to make room for a new set
of apprentices at very low wages or none at all.
As early as 1853 a writer in the Unac suggested that an industrial
association should be formed for the relief of working women, where
they could be taught "to be clerks, shoemakers, watchmakers, sailors
[sic], florists, horticulturists, chandlers, hatters, nurses, midwives,
accountants, scribes, telegraphers, daguerreotypists, and a dozen
other things." In the same year there was a "Girls' Industrial
« Address of the National Labor Congress to the Workingmen of the United States,
pp. 10, 11.
& The Revolution, October 1, 1868.
c The Una, Providence, R. I., July 1, 1853, p. 92. The Una was a woman's rights
journal.
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 31
School" in New York,0 but nothing of real importance along this
line appears to have been done until after the war, when schools were
opened in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and other cities to teach
girls various industrial arts. In Boston, too, an effort was made
about this time by the Massachusetts Working Women's League to
encourage girls to serve regular apprenticeships so that they should
acquire skill and therefore command higher wages.6 A little later
Miss Jennie Collins proposed to establish in Boston an institution to
be called the li Young Woman's Apprentice Association" for the
education of girls in needlework, machine work, and scientific house-
work. In 1871 she petitioned the state legislature for aid for this
institution,6 but nothing appears to have been done.
The industrial schools and business colleges which originated in the
sixties and seventies, it is true, have made it possible for women to
enlarge somewhat their field of activity by entering new employments.
They have done little or nothing, however, to make women wage-
earners in mechanical industries more skillful or more efficient.
The condition of the great majority of working women, indeed, as
regards skill and efficiency, is probably worse now than that of their
grandmothers who were not wage-earners. Before the introduc-
tion of machinery women were probably, on the whole, as compared
with men workers, more skillful and efficient than they are to-day.
The occupations taught them then were theirs for life. A girl could
well take pride and pleasure in learning to spin, to weave, to sew,
and to cook. She was preparing herself for the great event in her
life — her marriage, and for the career every girl looks forward to —
the keeping of the home and the care of children. Gradually, how-
ever, as girls have been forced, on the one hand by machinery, which
has taken away their work, and on the other hand by division of
labor, which has drawn them into all manner of strange occupation,
tG undertake tasks which have no direct interest to them as pro-
spective wives and mothers, there has grown up a class of women
workers in whose lives there is contradiction and internal discord.
Their work has become merely a means of furnishing food, shelter,
and clothing during a waiting period which has, meanwhile, gradually
lengthened out as the average age of marriage has increased. Their
work no longer fits in with their ideals and has lost its charm.
Woman wage-earners, too, have always been and still are held
down by the very real difficulty, already mentioned, of acquiring
proficiency in their occupations. In the olden days girls were care-
fully taught the domestic arts, but when woman's industrial revolu-
tion came to sweep these arts out of the home their industrial edu-
o New York Daily Tribune, June 20, 1853.
6 American Workman, November 20, 1869. Constitution of the Massachusetts
Working Women's League.
c The Revolution, April 13, 1871.
32 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
cation became a thing of the past. Only in the intellectual classes,
which are largely influenced by the fact that intellectual work can
often be carried on in the home, have parents recognized the need
of educating their daughters for a useful occupation. Girls are taught
the same branches as boys and are expected to marry. Formerly a
girl who did not marry had a useful occupation as a "spinster."
Now she Las no useful occupation in the home and is therefore thrown
upon her own resources to obtain outside employment.
Denied adequate training while under her parents' protection,
once a wage-earner she is obliged to labor incessantly to obtain food,
clothing, and shelter. Her wages are rarely sufficient to afford her
opportunity to improve her position by self-education or attendance
at industrial schools, even if such schools were not woefully lacking
where most seriously needed.
Finally, the possibility of promotion, or even of praise for excellence
of workmanship, is practically denied to her. In most cases, prob-
ably, woman's expectation of marriage is responsible for her lack of
skill, but in some instances, doubtless, her enforced lack of skill is
responsible for her longing for marriage as a relief from intolerable
drudgery. The only certain deductions are that, in the days when
marriage and skill were not divorced, women were proficient, accord-
ing to the standards and knowledge of their time, in the work which
they performed, but that, since the general upheaval in their occu-
pations which has accompanied the industrial revolution, they have
come to be to an alarming extent the cheap laborers of the employ-
ment market, the unskilled and underpaid drudges of the industrial
world.
In spite, however, of all these difficulties, a study of the history of
S working women of this country shows that there has been a
dual pushing up of women workers from the level of the purely
mechanical pursuits to the level of semi-intellectual work. There is
hope in this tendency, slight as it may be. There is some hope, too,
in the gradual relaxation of the old rigid rule that the good positions
in business and industry could be given only to men.
SCOPE AND SOURCES OF THE REPORT.
In this report on the history of women in industry, wage-earning
occupations alone are considered. The unremunerated home work
of women, which has probably dovetailed in with their wage labor
in such a way that at all periods approximately the same proportion
of the work of the world has been done by them, is necessarily
neglected. Women engaged in professions, in independent business,
and in agriculture, too, are considered only in their relation to the
wage-earning women in industry. That is, these occupations are
CHAPTER I. — INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 33
studied statistically as outlets for women who would otherwise be
competitors of those engaged in wage labor in the industrial field.
The pressure of competition in other branches of labor is in part to be
ascertained by a study of the statistics of these industries. But they
are not primarily the subject of this history.
For convenience of study and presentation of the changes in the
employment of women as reflected in the principal sources, the
industries to be studied have been classified in six main groups,
(1) the textile industries, (2) clothing and the sewing trades, (3)
domestic service, (4) the manufacture of food and kindred products,
including beverages, (5) other manufacturing industries, including
tobacco and cigar manufacture, the paper and printing industries,
the manufacture of metals of all kinds, and of wood, clay, glass, and
chemicals, and (6) trade and transportation. Of these, the first
four are within woman's traditional sphere, and only in the last two
groups can their work be said to really encroach upon that of men.
The study of the history of these first four groups of industries is,
then, not a study of the entrance of women into new occupations,
but merely a study of changes in the conditions under which they
have labored. In the fifth and sixth groups, however, the history
of woman's employment is of an entirely different character, for here
women have infringed upon man's traditional domain.
The history of women in industry in the United States is a broad
subject, nearly as broad as the history of men in industry, and the
material for such a study is voluminous. The principal sources used
in this study have been the census and other publications of the
Federal Government, state labor and statistical bureau reports, the
reports of legislative committees, and old books, pamphlets, and
newspaper files, the latter located primarily through the search set
up by the American Bureau of Industrial Research. Representative
establishments, too, of nearly all the principal industries have been
visited, and persons familiar with the industries have been consulted.
As a result, however, of the breadth of the subject as compared
with the space allotted, and of the comparative inaccessibility of the
sources of information prior to the establishment of labor and sta-
tistical bureaus as compared with the reports of these bureaus and
with other sources made accessible during the past thirty years or so,
it has been thought best to give a somewhat disproportionate amount
of space to information and quotations derived from the rare early
sources. The character and conditions of woman's work within
recent years have been fully described in reports, books, magazines,
and newspapers which can be easily obtained, but the history of the
formative period of woman's work has long been buried away in rare
old books and papers, many of them until recently unknown even to
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol 9 3
3-1 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
close students of the labor question. The history of the wage labor
of women during and shortly after this formative period, moreover,
is not only comparatively unknown, but furnishes the only possible
basis for any historical interpretation of women in industry.
The sources of information in regard to labor conditions during
these early years are largely pamphlets and newspaper files. Out-
side of these the existing material is extremely meager, for thorough
investigations of labor problems in an impartial way were unknown.
In consequence, anything that will throw light from whatever angle
upon the conditions of those early days is worthy of examination.
Most of the pamphlets were written by persons thoroughly familiar
with the conditions which they discussed, and some of the newspaper
articles, such, for instance, as the series in the New York Tribune, are
comparable with the better class of articles upon similar subjects in
the magazines of to-day. On the other hand, many of the statements
from these old files disclose the intensity of the controversy of which
they were a part and the strong personal bias of the authors; in
many instances statements of facts are directly contradictory. So
far as the material exists, great care has been exercised to present
both sides in all matters of controversy, as closely as possible in the
original words, and always with the authority cited. The reader must
take into consideration the character of the material and the relative
value of the sources of information, just as he would in reading
similar material of recent publication.
CHAPTER II.
TEXTILE INDUSTRIES.
CHAPTER II.
TEXTILE INDUSTRIES.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.
The first appearance of women in industry, apart from their em-
ployment in domestic service, was in the manufacture of textiles.
Not merely was this their recognized occupation from time imme-
morial, but it was the first employment in which women in any large
numbers worked for compensation outside of their immediate fami-
lies, or were gainfully employed. Since the dawn of civilization
women have provided the great bulk of the labor required in the
manufacture of textile fabrics, and in 1791 Alexander Hamilton,
in his report to Congress on manufactures, spoke of the "vast scene
of household manufacturing" and stated that, in a number of dis-
tricts, it had been computed "that two-thirds, three-fourths, and
even four-fifths of all the clothing of the inhabitants are made by
themselves." As late as 1810 Gallatin estimated that "about two-
thirds of the clothing, including hosiery, and of the house and table
linen, worn and used by the inhabitants of the United States, who
do not reside in cities, is the product of family manufacture." °
The history of women's employment in the cotton industry may
be divided roughly into three periods, that of hand labor before the
use of improved machinery, that of the use of spinning machinery
before the introduction of the power loom, and that of the complete
textile factory, in which all the branches of manufacture were carried
on under one roof. The first period lasted approximately from the
first settlement of the country to 1787, when the first "cotton mill,"
which was, in reality, simply a spinning mill, was erected at Beverly,
Mass. The second period began with the introduction of unproved
spinning machinery run by water power and ended with the erection
of the first complete cotton factory, containing both spinning and
weaving machinery, at Waltham, in 1814. The third period extends
from that date to the present time.
In the other textile industries the same industrial development
was somewhat more backward, especially the introduction of the
power loom. Woolen cloth was woven on a large scale by men
hand-loom weavers in Philadelphia and other places until after
the middle of the nineteenth century. It is possible, however, to
o American State Papers, Finance, Vol. II, p. 427.
37
38 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
treat these threi3 periods as approximately coextensive, though with
variations in time, in all the textile industries. But it must not be
forgotten that there was a considerable amount of overlapping of
the different methods of production.
In general, it may be said that during the first period all the spin-
ning and a large part of the weaving was done by women; during
the second a small number of men were employed in various occupa-
tions connected with spinning, but women assumed a much larger
proportion of the weaving; and during the third the proportion
of women to men has, upon the whole, steadily declined.
Spinning had always been women's work, but in weaving there
has been a certain amount of displacement of men by women. Much
weaving of the lighter goods was done by women in colonial days,
but the heavier goods were woven by men. In the days of the hand
loom, for instance, carpets were woven almost if not exclusively by
men, but the Bigelow power loom, introduced between 1840 and
1850, brought women carpet weavers. In 1846 a letter from a
Thompsonville, Conn., "Factory Laborer" appeared in the Har-
binger which spoke of the future prospects of carpet weavers as
"very gloomy," since power looms were sure to come in "and if we
are allowed to work at them at all, we shall have to work at very
low wages, probably at the same rate as girls."0 The year before,
the carpet mill at Lowell was said to be the only one in the world using
power looms. But by these looms "a young woman easily does the
work, which, by the hand process, required the hard labor of three
men." b
Naturally, public sentiment has never been vigorously opposed
to the employment of women in the textile industries. Throughout
the period from the beginning of textile manufacture until its thor-
ough establishment, indeed, one of the chief arguments for its pro-
tection by tariff legislation was that it would employ women and
children who would otherwise "eat the bread of idleness."6 In
colonial days it was taken as a matter of course that women should
spin and weave, and the establishment of "manufactories" or
"spinning schools" was one of the favorite methods of relieving
poverty. Thus a petition presented to the Massachusetts legisla-
ture January 15, 1789, by the company of persons who established
« Harbinger, Brook Farm, Mass., June 20, 1846, Vol. Ill, pp. 29,30. The Har-
binger was the organ of the Brook Farm movement.
6 Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, p. 100.
c In arguing for the establishment of manufactures the Republican Herald, of Pough-
keepsie, N. Y., said in 1815: "Many poor persons and many children, who would other-
wise be brought up in ignorance and idleness, find employment; and employment,
too, of a nature suited to their age and circumstances. The public is relieved from the
support of paupers, who would be a serious tax upon 'hgnest industry V (Quoted in
the Boston Independent Chronicle, Apr. 13, 1815.)
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 39
the Beverly factory, set forth that "it will afford employment to a
great number of women and children, many of whom will otherwise
be useless, if not burdensome to society."0 In 1792 Tench Coxe
asserted that the objection to manufactures that it took people
from agriculture was not valid, "since women, children, horses,
water and fire all work at manufactures and perform four-fifths of the
labor."6 In 1812 he congratulated the country on the fact that
"female aid in manufactures, which prevents the diversion of men
and boys from agriculture, has greatly increased."6 And the in-
crease of woman's work in textile factories during the war of 1812
was referred to by White, in his Memoir of Slater,0" as "adding to
the public prosperity." As early as 1827, too, the establishment
of manufactories in the slave States was urged on the ground that it
would "employ thousands of the idle women and children (slaves)
who are to be found on every plantation in Maryland and Virginia
and the adjacent States."*
By 1836, however, the evils of the factory system had developed
considerable opposition to the employment of women in factories,
and the Baltimore Transcript was driven to reply to these criticisms
that "the notion * * * that factory labor should be restricted
to men, is too visionary to merit refutation."'
THE HOME WORK AND HANDICRAFT STAGE.
It is impossible to say just how early women began to spin and
weave for profit. Miss Edith Abbott 0 shows that at least as early
as 1685 women were employed in weaving by a Boston shopkeeper.
It is probable, indeed, that almost from the very beginning of
industry in this country some women were employed in spinning and
weaving for profit.
Very early in the history of the country, too, public effort was
made to encourage textile manufactures. The Massachusetts assem-
bly, for instance, passed an order in 1640 for the encouragement of
the manufacture of linen cloth and of the spinning and weaving of
cotton wool, requiring the magistrates and deputies of the several
towns "to make inquiry what seed is in every town, what men and
weomen are skillful in the braking, spinning, weaving; what means
for the providing of wheeles ; and to consider with those skillful in that
manifacture, what course may be taken * * * for teaching the
a Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 91.
& Coxe, Reflections on the State of the Union, p. 8.
cCoxe, Statement of Arts and Manufactures, p. xiv.
«" White, Memoir of Slater, second edition, 1836, p. 200.
« Carey's Excerpta, New Series, vol. 7, pp. 467, 468. Carey, Miscellaneous Essays,
pp. 232-234.
/ Quoted in Public Ledges, Philadelphia, December 6, 1836.
0 Abbott, Women in Industry, pp. 23, 24.
40 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
boys and girls in all townes the spinning of the yarn;" etc.0 A simi-
lar order was made in Connecticut in the same year. Other colonies
followed. In Virginia, for instance, an act was passed in 1666 to
promote manufactures, providing that each company should set up
a loom. In 1656 the General Court of Massachusetts Bay passed an
order enjoining all hands not otherwise employed, "as women, girls,
and boys," to spin " according to their skill and ability'7 and prescrib-
ing the amount of yarn to be produced in a year.6 The chief atten-
tion, however, before the introduction of the cotton gin, was given to
linen. By 1708 the Southern States produced a large amount of
linen cloth of fine quality. "The material was mostly grown upon
the farms of the planters and the breaking and heckling being done
by the men, while the carding, spinning, weaving, bleaching, and
dyeing, were performed by the wives and daughters of the planter."0
In 1718 the arrival in Boston of a number of Irish spinners and
weavers, bringing the implements of their craft, caused "a great
stir." "Directly the ' spinning craze/ as it was aptly called, took
possession of the town, and the women, young and old, high and low,
rich and poor, flocked into the spinning school, which, for want of
better quarters, was set up on the Common, in the open air. Here
the whirr of their wheels was heard from morning to night. "d In
1721, too, a spuming school was erected in Boston for the instruction
of poor children.*
A public effort was made in Boston in 1748 to promote manu-
factures as a means of relieving the poor by the employment of women
and children, and in 1753 there was erected as a linen manufactory,
by act of the General Court, a handsome brick building bearing on its
front wall the figure of a woman holding a distaff. In the same year,
on the second anniversary of the Society for Encouraging Industry
and Employing the Poor, about 300 young women appeared on the
Common seated at their spinning wheels. This factory after a few
years was abandoned/ Again in March, 1770, a memorial was pre-
sented to the General Court of Massachusetts by William Molineux,
who, for the purpose of relieving the poor of Boston, had caused
about 400 spinning wheels to be made "and hired a number of rooms
for spinning schools, as also a number of mistresses to properly teach
such children, and so successful has been his endeavour that, in the
course of the summer only, not being able to continue through the
winter's cold season, he had learned at least 300 children and women
o Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 4.
6 Idem, p. 8.
c Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. I, p. 330.
d Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 18. Quoted from
Winsor's Memorial History of Boston, Vol. II, p. 511.
« Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 19.
/ Idem, pp. 35-37.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 41
to spin in the most compleat manner; and has constantly employed
to this day all such as would work, and paid them their money to a
large amount."**
About 1764 a Philadelphia association employed more than 100
persons in spinning and weaving. 6 The United Company of Phila-
delphia, too, formed for the purpose of promoting American manu-
factures, is said to have employed in October, 1775, "in spinning
and other work four hundred women, who would otherwise have
been destitute."6 This manufactory advertised, on December 4, 1775,
that it would " employ every good spinner that can apply, however
remote from the factory, and, as many women in the country may
supply themselves with the materials there, and may have leisure
to spin considerable quantities, they are hereby informed that ready
money will be given at the factory, up Market street, for any parcel,
either great or small, of hemp, flax, or woolen yarn."d In addition
to spinning, women were employed to "attend on the weavers to
wind their chains and quills for about seven shillings and sixpence
per week, and find themselves. One woman can attend three looms." e
As late as 1788 the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of
Manufactures and the Useful Arts reported that, to employ the poor,
they had purchased flax and employed between 200 and 300 women
in spinning linen yarn during the winter and spring/
In New York, too, in 1764, a society was formed for the purpose of
encouraging the manufacture of linen as a means, among other things,
of giving employment to the poor. This association employed in
1767-68 in spinning and weaving "above 300 poor and necessitous
persons."^ In 1789 the New York Society for the Encouragement of
American Manufactures employed 130 spinners.*
Encouragement was also early given to the manufacture of silk.
In 1749 Georgia offered bounties "to every woman who should,
within the year, become a proficient in reeling," * and sheds were
erected and supplied with machines for that purpose. "The bounty
was claimed," says Bishop, "by 14 young women, who were the next
year engaged at the filature." * In 1750 a public filature or silk house
was erected in Savannah to instruct in the management of private
a Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 43.
b Idem, p. 51.
c Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. I, p. 387.
* Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 70, 71. Quoted from
the Pennsylvania Packet and General Advertiser, December 4, 1775.
« Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. I, p. 400.
/ Idem, p. 407; White, Memoir of Slater, p. 58.
0 Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 53.
ft Idem, p. 124.
'Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. I, p. 357.
42 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
filatures. Another filature was opened in Philadelphia in 1770. a
Unlike the manufacture of cotton and wool, England encouraged the
silk business, but she could afford to do so as the colonies were not
prepared to produce anything but unwrought material. In 1788,
however, a company was incorporated in Connecticut to manufacture
silk into stockings, handkerchiefs, ribbons, etc. Bishop says that at
that time a woman and two or three children could make 10 or 12
pounds of raw silk in five or six weeks. &
Isolated instances of the manufacture of silk cloth during the
eighteenth century have been discovered, but the real history of
women silk weavers began many years later. The making of sewing
silk was, however, a household industry of some degree of importance
at the r eriod of the Revolution, and for at least 50 years afterwards. c
All the silk raised in the United States before 1828, indeed, was spun
by hand, and it was not until the introduction of the sewing machine
that the unsuitability for its consumption of the sewing silk then in
use brought about, in 1852, the invention of a satisfactory machine
for the manufacture of sewing silk. d
The work of women in the textile industries during these years was
probably in the first instance "to order" or custom work, and there
must have been a great deal of this kind of manufacture throughout
the entire period. This work was, of course, done at home, as was
most of the considerable amount of wholesale manufacture which
later developed. This wholesale manufacture was either for retail
shopkeepers or for " manufactories," where a number of spinning
wheels or looms were gathered together under one roof and their
products controlled by a single individual. The manufactories
already noticed furnish instances of the latter kind in which
women were employed. In the weaving shops, which appear to
have been somewhat more common, the employees were probably
men; but the yarn was spun by women in their homes. No instance
is known during the period in which both spinning and weaving were
carried on in the same manufactory.
The chief characteristic of custom work was that the manufacturer
furnished the materials and sold the product. Though a good deal
of custom work was doubtless done by women independently, in
many cases, probably, as during the same period in England, a pro-
fessional man weaver would buy the materials and have his wife and
children spin the yarn for his loom. The husband, too, doubtless
often sold the work done by his wife and daughters. It is, indeed,
impossible to distinguish in this period the labor of the wife from that
of the husband.
a Hazard's Register, Philadelphia, January 26, 1828.
6 Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. I, p. 361.
c Special Report on Silk Manufacture, Tenth Census, 1880, p. 13.
d Greeley and others, Great Industries of the United States, 1872, p. 545.
CHAPTER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 43
In the wholesale manufacture of textiles the shopkeeper or manu-
facturer furnished the material, and in work for a manufactory this
appears to have been the general flan, but much of the work for
shopkeepers was doubtless custom work.
Hand spinning at home continued for a number of years, even after
the introduction of power and improved machinery. Mr. Thomas R.
Hazard, of Rhode Island, stated that in 1816 and even later he "used
to em7 loy scores of women to spin at their homes at 4 cents a skein,
by which they earned 12 cents a day at most. Inferior cotton shirt-
ings sold then at 50 cents a yard, thus requiring 4 days' work of the
woman to pay for 1 yard of cotton cloth, she boarding herself. The
wool was carded into rolls at Peacedale and transported to and from
on the backs of horses. "a In 1810 Gallatin reported that in New
Hampshire "every farmer's home is provided with one or more
wheels, according to the number of females," and that "every second
house, at least, has a loom for weaving linen, cotton, and coarse
woolen cloths, which is almost wholly done by women."6
Knitting was, naturally, one of the textile industries carried on for
profit by women during the colonial days. It is recorded that knit
stockings sold for 2s. or more a pair. c In 1698 Marthas Vineyard
is said to have exported 9,000 pairs of knit hose. d Throughout the
colonial period, and until well into the nineteenth century, hand-knit
hose were an important article of manufacture. The work, of course,
was done by women and children.
The manufactories, as has been already pointed out, were of two
kinds, for spinning or for weaving, and only in the former were
women generally employed. A few women may have been employed
in the weave shops as assistants to men, but in general the factory
employment of women in the textile industry during this period was
confined to spinning.
Manufactories which did not use either the new machinery or power
persisted, and in some instances were newly started, even after the
introduction of spinning machinery at Beverly. A sail duck factory,
for example, was started in Boston in 1788 which promised "to give
employment to a great number of persons, especially females who
now eat the bread of idleness, whereby they may gain an honest
livelihood. "e In January, 1789, it appeared that " several hundred
poor persons" were " constantly employed," and in May of the same
year "16 young women and as many girls, under the direction of a
o United States Bureau of Statistics, Wool and Manufactures of Wool, Special
Report, 1888, p. XLVII.
& American State Papers, Finance, Vol. II, p. 435.
c Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, Vol. I, p. 392.
d Campbell, Women Wage-Earners, p. 74.
< Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 113. Quoted from
Boston Centinel of September 6, 1788.
44 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
steady matron" were said to have been employed in spinning at this
factory.0 Again, in October, 1789, President Washington visited
the factory and recorded that he saw "14 girls, spinning with both
hands (the flax being fastened to their waist). Children (girls) turn
the wheels for them." The spinners were paid by the piece, and
President Washington added to the account hi his diary: "They are
the daughters of decayed families and are girls of Character — none
others are admitted." In 1792 there were 400 employees.6
At other places in New England the manufacture of duck was car-
ried on by similar methods, and manufactories of cotton goods were
attempted in a considerable number of places. In 1789 the Baltimore
Cotton Manufactory, in advertising for experienced weavers, added:
"Apply to the subscriber at the factory, where a few women can be
employed at winding yarn." c
In these spinning factories, even before the introduction of machin-
ery, various improvements had been made, but none of great impor-
tance. In a factory at Haverhill, for instance, Washington recorded
in 1789 that "one small person turns a wheel which employs eight
spinners, each acting independently of the other." d This reminds
us of the belated movement by which, about 1812, portable spinning
frames, capable of spinning from 6 to 24 threads and made expressly
for family use, were quite extensively sold about the country for
prices ranging from about $25 to about $50.*
In at least one case, and probably in more, it appears that the
effort to introduce improvements in machinery resulted in the substi-
tution of men for women spinners. This case was in the factory at
Pawtucket, afterwards the scene of Slater's enterprise, where the
"billies and jennies" were driven by men, though "the cotton for this
experiment was carded by hand and roped on a woolen wheel by a
female. "-f The carding for these machines was done "in families." 0
"Jennies" and "billies" of imperfect construction are also said to
have been used before 1790, "chiefly by Scottish and Irish spinners
and weavers," in Providence, New York, Beverly, Worcester, and
other places.^
It is safe to say, in general, that before the introduction of the
factory system practically all of the spinning and a large part of the
aBagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 114. The first state-
ment is quoted from a petition to the Massachusetts legislature, and the second
from the Gazette of the United States, New York, May 6, 1789.
6 Diary of Washington, October, 1789, to March, 1790, New York, 1858, p. 33.
cBagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 133.
d Diary of Washington, October, 1789, to March, 1790, New York, 1858, p. 42.
« Peck and Earl, Fall River and Its Industries, p. 79.
/Batchelder, History of the Cotton Industry, p. 19; White, Memoir of Slater, p. 76.
0 White, Memoir of Slater, p. 93.
ft Idem, p. 95.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 45
weaving, whether for home consumption or for the market, was done
by women and girls. At the time of the Revolution, for instance, a
considerable amount of woolen and linen goods were manufactured
at the Bethlehem community in Pennsylvania, and the records show
that while most of the heavy weaving was done in the " Brethren's
House/' where the unmarried men lived, most of the spinning and
the lighter weaving was done in the "Sisters' House," where the
unmarried women lived, and in the " Widows' House." a If we con-
sider only gainful employment, to be sure, the men may have had the
advantage in numbers, for most of the itinerant weavers who went
from house to house, much as some seamstresses or dressmakers do
to-day, were men, while they generally used yarns spun by the women
of the family in which they were hired and not by gainful labor. A
little later, however, the introduction of spinning machinery created
such a great demand for weavers that weaving came to be almost as
much woman's work as spinning formerly had been. It is probable,
moreover, that from the beginning a much larger part of the hand
weaving was done by women in the United States, where labor was
dear, than in England, where labor was cheap.
The price, in 1688, for spinning worsted or linen, we are told, was
usually 2 shillings the pound, and for knitting coarse yarn stockings,
half a crown a pair. The price for weaving linen of half a yard in
width was 10 or 12 pence per yard. Wool combers or carders
received 12 pence per pound/*
Another important home industry connected with the manu-
facture of textiles in colonial times, and even in the early years of
the nineteenth century, was the manufacture of hand cards for comb-
ing cotton and wool. The teeth and the cards were cut in the factory,
new machinery being invented for this purpose toward the end of
the eighteenth century, and were then distributed to the women and
children of the neighborhood, who inserted the teeth separately by
hand. A single factory in Boston employed in this work in 1794
about 1,200 persons, chiefly women and children.6 Before 1797
three large factories in Boston are said to have employed nearly
2,000 children and 60 men. There were also in Boston at that time
three smaller factories.0 Some women also worked in the factories,
examining the cards returned and correcting imperfect work. In
1812, too, it is recorded that the largest card factory in Leicester,
Mass., employed about 18 hands in the cutting of teeth, two- thirds
of them girls engaged in turning the machines. The pay for setting
teeth averaged, for a " sheet" about 5 inches wide by 36 inches long,
oBagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 27.
b Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. I, p. 317.
ejdem, p. 497.
46 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
from 25 to 40 cents, according to the fineness of the teeth.0 Card-
making machinery was patented, however, in 1797, and we hear no
more of this employment for women.
THE PERIOD OF SPINNING MACHINERY.
The second period of textile manufacture in this country began
in 1789 with the Beverly, Mass., cotton factory, which is claimed to
have been the first in America to carry on under one roof all the
operations of the manufacture of cotton cloth. But the first Ark-
wright machines were used at the Slater factory at Pawtucket in
1790, and as this type of factory seems to belong naturally to an
earlier stage of development it seems best to describe it first. The
Slater factory, like many if not the majority of the 168 " cotton
factories" in operation in the United States in 1810, was merely a
spinning mill. At first it sold its cotton yarn, but later hired weavers
to work in their homes and sold the cloth thus manufactured, as
well as yarn. During 1790 and 1791 its employees consisted entirely
of children from 7 to 12 years of age, most of them boys.6 Women
were later introduced as spinners, but we have no record of the date.
Upon the first introduction of machinery it appears to have been
common, indeed, for children to displace women in their traditional
occupation, spinning. In the Globe Mills at Philadelphia, for instance,
in 1797, most of the spinning was done by boys.c
The spinning of wool by machinery was introduced later than
that of cotton. In the Hartford (Conn.) Woolen Manufactory,
started in 1788 and supposed to have been the first which used more
than one loom, the yarn, as late as 1794, when the factory was reported
by Henry Wansey, the " Wiltshire Clothier" to have been "in
decay," was all spun by hand.d This work was doubtless done by
women, and probably outside of the factory. As late, as 1809 there
appeared, in a newspaper article on the wool manufacture, an account
of "the new constructed spinning jennies, lately made by the
ingenious Mr. Scholfield of this town" on which "a single woman can
easily spin from 20 to 30 runs of fine yarn per day" and which "can
be conveniently worked in any private family."*
In these early spinning mills the spinners were generally girfc from
neighboring towns, and the weaving was done by women, or by
both men and women of the neighborhood. In 1811 President
Timothy Dwight visited the cotton and woolen mills in Humphreys-
aGreeley and others, Great Industries of the United States, 1872, p. 648
fcBagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 158,159; White,
Memoir of Slater, p. 99.
c Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. II, pp. 71, 72.
<* Wansey, Journal of an Excursion to the United States, pp. 60, 258.
« Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 264. Quoted from
the Pittsfield Sun, November 18, 1809.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 47
ville, Conn., and he stated that in both "the principal part of the
labour * * * is done by women and children; the former hired
at from 50 cents to $1 per week, the latter, apprentices." He added
that the health and moral conditions were excellent, and that all
of the operatives were Americans. a Three years earlier, when the
" Baltimore Cotton Manufactory" was put in operation, the announce-
ment stated that "a number of boys and girls, from 8 to 12 years of
age are wanted/' and that "work will be given out to women at
their homes, and widows will have the preference in all cases where
work is given out, and satisfactory recommendations will be ex-
pected."6
The records of the Poignaud and Plant mill show that both sexes
were employed as weavers, about one-third being women. But in
other cases the weaving appears to have been done entirely by
women. Mr. Batchelder related that, six or seven years before the
commencement of weaving by power loom at Waltham, he was one
of the owners of the second cotton mill built in New Hampshire, and
that, in order to dispose of his part of the product, he "undertook
to manufacture yarn by the hand loom into shirting, gingham,
checks, and ticking." Nearly every farmhouse, he said, was fur-
nished with a loom and spinning wheels "and most of the females
were weavers or spinners, and were very willing to undertake to
weave such articles as I proposed, in order to purchase calicoes and
such other goods as they could not manufacture themselves." Before
the war of 1812 he made a contract, he said, with the other owners
of the mill to purchase the whole of the yarn for several years, and
extended his business so that at times he had about 100 weavers in
his employ — "not constantly at work, but as they had leisure from
other household employment. They came from the neighboring
towns for the distance of 6 or 8 miles for the yarn and to return the
webs. The price for weaving the different articles was from 3 to 7
cents a yard." He continued this business several years after the
introduction of the power loom at Waltham, which was at first con-
fined to plain sheetings and shirtings, while most of the goods he pro-
duced by hand looms were twilled or checks, such as were not then
produced by the power loom.6
Similar customs prevailed hi the neighborhood of Providence,
R. I., which was early a center of cotton manufacture. By 1812
there are said to have been, within a radius of 30 miles of Providence,
in Rhode Island thirty-three factories, and in Massachusetts twenty
factories.* Before the introduction of the power loom at Fall River
oBagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 353,354.
&Idem, p. 489.
« Webber, Manual of Power, pp. 24, 25.
<* White, Memoir of Slater, p. 188.
48 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
in 1817 little but the spinning of the yarn was done in the factories
there. "The cotton was picked by hand in the homes at 4 cents a
pound, spun in the mills and then woven by the housewives in their
dwellings."0 "The mills in the neighborhood of Providence kept
wagons running constantly into the rural districts, invading both
Massachusetts and Connecticut, bearing out yarn to be woven and
returning with the product of the hand looms, worked by the farmers'
wives and daughters of the country side." 6
The rapid multiplication of factories using the improved spinning
machinery almost immediately caused a great increase in the demand
for weavers to use the greatly increased amount of yarn, and to fill
this demand women took up, to a greater extent than ever before,
the art of weaving. In 1812 Tench Coxe remarked that "women,
relieved in a very considerable degree from their former employ-
ments, as carders, spinners, and fullers by hand, occasionally turn
to the operations of the weaver with improved machinery and instru-
ments, which abridge and soften the labor."6 He recommended,
at the same tune, that "young females, particularly those who are
bound as apprentices or otherwise, by the public guardians, and
who continue for a time hi private families," be taught the art of
weaving. "It is a business," he said, "a good knowledge of which
may be obtained in a few weeks, and it would be a great advantage
to those families through the whole of their lives. It is principally
by female weavers, that the States of North Carolina and Virginia
have been unobservedly enabled to exceed all the others in the
number of working looms, and that the Southern States have so
imperceptibly • advanced hi the various cloth manufactures. The
stocking looms of England and Germany," he added, "and the new
broad and other hose- web looms of England are peculiarly and
manifestly worthy of female attention, being much more profitable
than the common very unproductive knitting needles. "d
In a considerable number of early cotton factories, however, spin-
ning by machinery appears to have been combined with hand weaving.
This was the case at the Beverly factory, already mentioned, which
in 1790 employed 40 persons, both men and women/ This factory
was closely followed by the Philadelphia "manufactory," also pre-
viously mentioned, which was replenished with apparatus for both
spinning and weaving of cotton goods in the spring of 1788/ Other
similar factories followed the introduction of the Arkwright machines.
a Fenner, History of Fall River, p. 23.
6 Peck and Earl, Fall River and Its Industries, p. 79.
c Coxe, Statement of Arts and Manufactures, p. xxiv.
d Idem, p. LVII.
« Rantoul, The First Cotton Mill in America, Collections of Essex Institute, Vol.
XXXIII, p. 38.
/ Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, p. 78.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 49
In these factories women and children appear to have been
employed in spinning, and perhaps some women were also employed
in weaving. A letter written in 1790 by one of the proprietors of
the Beverly factory proves further that even at that early date
Beverly was not the only place where women were employed to
operate machines. This letter complained that Worcester " people"
had bribed a Beverly woman spinner who had been taught to use
the machines "to desert us as soon as she could be useful to us."
Khode Island " undertakers/' too, were said to have "treated us in
the same manner."*
In some cases, however, the introduction of spinning machinery
appears to have caused a temporary displacement of women by men.
In the Dickson Cotton Factory at Hell-Gates, about 5 miles from
New York, visited by Henry Wansey, the "Wiltshire Clothier/7 in
1794, spinning machinery of the Arkwright type seems to have been
operated at least in part by men, though Wansey recorded that
"they are training up women and children to the business, of whom
I saw 20 or 30 at work. They give the women," he added, "$2 a
week and find them in board and lodging." 6 It was further stated,
however, that "they have the machine called the mule/' which
doubtless accounts for the men spinners.
This type of "manufactory" survived, and new factories even
were started upon this plan for a number of years after the first intro-
duction of the power loom. In 1822, for instance, when the manu-
facture of cotton sail duck was first commenced at Paterson, N. J.,
hand looms were used. Power looms, however, were substituted in
1824.c
It is impossible to make even a rough estimate of the number of
women engaged in the manufacture of textiles during this period.
Some statistics can be given, to be sure, for the cotton industry, but
these relate only to their employment in factories and take no account
of the probably larger number of women who worked at home.
The first estimates which we have of the proportion of women to
men in the textile industries relate only to cotton manufactures.
Secretary Gallatin estimated in 1810, from the returns received from
87 mills, that the cotton mills of the country employed about 500
a Rantoul, The First Cotton Mill in America, Collections of Essex Institute, Vol.
XXXIII, pp. 37, 38.
b Wansey, Journal of an Excursion to the United States, p. 84.
c Webber, Manual of Power, p. 43. The town of Paterson had originally been
started in 1791 under a charter granted to an ambitious cotton manufacturing corpora-
tion, but the schemes were too extensive to be carried out and the factory ran only
for about two years, from 1794 to 1796, when the 125 operatives were discharged.
(Bagnall, Textile Industries of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 178-182.) It is recorded
of this first cotton factory at Paterson that "the workhouses of New York City" were
searched "to supply operatives." (Trumbull, History of Industrial Paterson, p. 38.)
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol
50 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS - WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
men and about 3,500 women and children, or 87.5 per cent women
and children.0 It is, of course, impossible to determine how many
of the children were girls and how many boys. In one factory near
Providence there were employed on August 31, 1809, in the manu-
factory 24 males and 29 females, and in neighboring private families
50 males and 75 females.6 In this case, then, only 54.7 per cent of
the persons employed in the factory and 58.4 per cent of all the
employees were women, which would seem to indicate that a large
number of boys were included in the estimate above given for the
whole United States.
Another estimate of the relative employment of men and women
in the cotton industry was made by the Committee of Commerce and
Manufacturers in a report to the House of Representatives of the
United States on February 13, 1816. It was as follows:6
Males employed from the age of 17 and upward ............................. 10, 000
Women and female children .............................................. 66, 000
Boys under 17 years of age ................................................ 24, 000
It appears from this estimate that about two-thirds of the em-
ployees were women and girls. But four years earlier Tench Coxe
estimated that in the manufacture of cotton yarn only one-eighth
part of the employees should be adult males. d
Employment in textile mills or even in the manufacture of textiles
for sale can not be said, however, to have become an important
employment for women until the time of the second war with England
and the introduction of the power loom. In 1800 only U500 bales of
cotton were manufactured in manufacturing establishments; in 1805,
1,000; in 1810, 10,000, and in 1815, 90,000." «
THE COMPLETE FACTORY SYSTEM.
The third period of textile manufactures in this country began
with the introduction in 1814 of the first successful power loom at
Waltham, Mass. This brought weaving, as well as spinning, into
the factories, and women followed the occupation in which, by reason
of the growing demand for weavers, they had already, to a great extent,
displaced men. The change affected at first only cotton weaving,
in which women had always engaged to a far greater extent than in
the weaving of wool. But gradually the power loom displaced the
hand loom in other textile industries until women became weavers
of all kinds of cloth and even of carpets. At the same time, too, the
textile industries were brought completely under the dominance of
the factory system.
o American State Papers, Finance, Vol. II, p. 427.
6 Idem, p. 434, note D.
c American State Papers. Finance. Vol. Ill, p. 82.
d Coxe, Statement of Arts and Manufactures, 1812, p. x.
f American State Papers, Finance, Vol. Ill, p. 32.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 51
The changes which have occurred since the inauguration of the
complete factory system in the textile industries of this country
may be divided into changes in the relative employment of men and
women, changes in hours, changes in wages, and changes in other
labor conditions, such as in the character and nationality of employ-
ees, in their home environment, their amusements, and their social
position, and in factory regulations and the character and compara-
tive healthfulness of their work.
The proportion of women as compared with men engaged in all the
textile industries combined has decreased since the inauguration of
the complete factory system. Table X shows that in 1850 half of
the employees in textile industries were women and in 1900 only 40.6
per cent were women, but there were such variations in the interven-
ing years, and the opportunities for error due to changes in census
classification are so great that the figures can be considered as only a
rough indication of true changes.0
In the complete textile factories there was doubtless, from the
beginning, a higher proportion of men than in the spinning mills,
but the scarcity of labor supply and the high price of male labor
both contributed to make women the chief dependence. The rapid
development of the country and the many opportunities open to
men for more remunerative employment made their assistance
exceedingly difficult to obtain until immigration began upon a large
scale. Even to women, with their far narrower opportunities, it
was necessary to offer comparatively high wages as an inducement.
But it was their occupations which were being transferred to the
factory, and naturally they followed. As a correspondent of the
Banner of the Constitution6 said in 1831: "There is in fact no
other market for this description of labor; there is no other mode
in which, so far as national wealth is concerned, it can be made
productive at all. The improvements in machinery have superseded
all household manufactures so entirely, that labor devoted to them,
so far as useful production is concerned, is as much thrown away
as if it were employed turning so many grindstones. * * * Take
a Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part III, Selected Indus-
tries, p. 7, gives the following as the proportion of women to all employees in the com-
bined textile industries, including cotton manufactures, hosiery and knit goods, wool
manufactures, silk and silk goods, flax, hemp, and jute products and dyeing and
finishing textiles:
Per cent.
1880 44. 2
1890 48. 4
1900 44. 2
1905 44. 7
& Banner of the Constitution, New York and Philadelphia, June 29, 1831. This
paper was perhaps the most important organ of the free trade movement of that day.
52 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
away the employment of females in the different branches of manu-
factures, chiefly in cotton and wool, and there is absolutely no market,
no demand, for the great mass of female labor existing in the commu-
nity. It is an inert, unproductive, untried power — an unknown
capability."
COTTON MANUFACTURE.
It is, however, in particular branches of textile manufacture that
the movement can be most accurately and profitably studied. For
the cotton industry the figures show a steady and decided drop in
the proportion of women employees. Even though no formal sta-
tistics existed, there is abundant evidence in contemporary descrip-
tions that the cotton factories of the early part of the century
employed many more women than men. Thus in 1819 the Waltham
factory is said to have employed 14 men and 286 women,0 and one
at Fishkill had from 70 to 80 employees, five-sixths of whom were
women.6 In 1825 the Poignaud and Plant factory near Worcester,
Mass., employed only 8 men and 39 women,6 and a couple of years
later, in 1827, it was estimated d that the Lowell factories employed
1,200 persons, nine- tenths of them females and 20 of these from 12
to 14 years of age. In the same year the factories at Newmarket,
N. H., are said to have employed 20 men as overseers and assistants,
5 boys, and 250 girls.* The Chicopee cotton factory at Springfield,
Mass., was reported in 1831 to employ about seven-eighths women/
In Lowell, moreover, in 1833 all the factories are said to have employed
1,200 males and 3,800 females,? and in 1834, 4,500 females out of a
total of 6,000 employees. h In 1835 seven Lowell companies
employed 1,152 males and 4,076 females,*' and one company 65 men,
148 women, and 98 children.'' Other figures for all the Lowell fac-
a Carey, Essays in Political Economy, 1822, p. 162.
6 Idem, p. 459.
c Seven men and an overseer. See Abbott, Women in Industry, p. 89. Record
taken from the Manuscript Time Books, Poignaud and Plant Papers, in the Town
Library at Lancaster, Mass.
<*By Kirk Boott, a prominent Lowell manufacturer, in a letter written in answer
to questions from Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia. This letter was published in a
number of contemporary newspapers, in White's Memoir of Slater, pp. 252-255, and
a, copy is to be found in Carey's Excerpta, Vol. I, p. 250.
e White, Memoir bf Slater, p. 134.
/ Niles' Register, July 2, 1831, vol. 40, p. 307.
Q Boston Courier, June 27, 1833 ; quoted from the Lowell Journal. People's Magazine,
March 8, 1834, Vol. I, pp. 201, 202.
h Boston Transcript, May 27, 1834. Quoted from Bunker Hill Aurora.
< From a letter dated Lowell, April 20, 1835, published in White's Memoir of Slater,
pp. 255, 256. This does not include the Lawrence Company, which was running four
mills
^ Carey, Essay on the Rate of Wages, p. 95.
CHAPTER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 53
tories give in 1839, 2,077 males and 6,470 females;* in 1844,2,345
males and 6,295 females;6 in 1845, 2,415 males and 6,420 females;0
in 1846, 3,340 males and 7,915 females,** and in 1848 about 4,000
males and 9,000 females.*
The proportion of women to men employees in cotton mills appears,
however, not to have been as high in other parts of the country as in
Lowell and its neighborhood. The cotton factories at Paterson, N. J.,
for instance, in 1830, are supposed to have employed about 2,000
males and 3,000 females/
When the factory system was first introduced in this country two
distinct "schools" of cotton manufacture arose, based in part upon
the difference between mule and throstle (ring) spinning, in part upon
the kind of loom employed,? and in part upon the labor system. The
Lowell "school," which followed the plan originally worked out at
Waltham, used throstle spindles operated by women. Mule spinning
was not introduced at Lowell until after 1830,* and in 1845 it was said
that a large mill soon to be completed, in which the spinning was to be
done by mules, would be "the only one of the kind in the city."* At
Lowell, too, the employees were almost entirely girls from the farming
districts, who were housed in factory boarding houses. At Fall River,
on the other hand, mule spindles operated by men were used and the
employees were hired by families — men, women, and children — and
were housed in company tenements. The Fall River plan appears to
have been followed by the factories of New York, Pennsylvania, and
New Jersey.
Nevertheless, upon the whole, the proportion of women employees
appears to have been much higher in the early cotton factories of this
country than in those of England, a fact which Henry C. Carey ac-
counted for by the more general use here of throstle spinning/ Ac-
cording to English statistics of this period about three-fourths of the
mule spinners were men and three-fourths of the throstle spinners were
women.-* In 1905 the census report showed that the mule spinners
a Montgomery, Practical Detail of Cotton Manufacture of the United States, p. 170.
& Scoresby, American Factories and their Female Operatives, p. 32.
< New York Daily Tribune, August 16, 1845.
d Prairie Farmer, 1847, Vol. VII, p. H8.
« An estimate from Handbook for the Visitor to Lowell, 1848, p. 9.
/Trumbull, History of Industrial Paterson, p. 52.
Q As both types of loom were operated by women, this difference is not here of impor-
tance.
* Batchelder, Cotton Manufacture in the United States, p. 73.
* Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, p. 80.
i Carey, Essay on the Rate of Wages, 1835, p. 75.
54 WOMAN AN1> CHIL1> WAGE-EABNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
were almost exclusively men.0 In 1832 the females employed in
cotton factories in England exceeded the males by about 9 per cent,
while in the United States they were estimated to exceed the males
by more than 110 per cent.6
Gradually, however, the differences in the employment of women in
cotton factories in various parts of this country and between this
country and England have disappeared. The first statistics for the
country as a whole are those of the census of 1820, which are avowedly
incomplete. According to these figures more than half the employees
engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods and yarns were "boys and
girls," ages not specified; only about 25 per cent were classed as
women.6 The next statistics upon the subject, which are far more
satisfactory, were collected in 1831 by a society called the Friends of
Domestic Industry, and though also incomplete, appear to have been
gathered and compiled with care.d The results of this investigation
are contained in the following table :
a Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part III, Selected Industries,
p . 30. In general the relative importance of mule spinning by men and throstle or ring
spinning by women and children has been determined by the needs of the business
and the kind of yarn required. But in at least one instance a strike of mule spinners
led directly to the substitution of throstle spindles, which could be operated by a
"more docile and manageable class of operatives." This was in Fall River in 1873,
when, the home market having been overstocked and the number of mule spindles
greatly increased by the large increase in mills, the wages of the mule spinners, who
were generally foreigners, were reduced. The ensuing strike resulted, not merely in
the defeat of the operatives, but in turning the attention of manufacturers to the ''pro-
duction of weft as well as warp yarns, by the improved light ring spindle instead of the
mule." Thus women were substituted for men. (Webber, Manual of Power, p. 72.)
6 Carey, Essay on the Rate of Wages, 1835, pp. 71, 72.
c American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223. In the manufacture of
mixed cotton and woolen goods about 40 per cent of the employees were "boys and
girls" and about 20 per cent women.
d The information was collected by means of circulars addressed to all establish-
ments "within the knowledge of the committee." The important omissions known
to exist were in Vermont, from which returns were received only from the three western
counties, and in the Southern and Western States, where no less than 30 establishments
were known to exist, but from which no accurate returns were received. The results
were published in the New York Convention of the Friends of Domestic Industry,
Report on the Production and Manufacture of Cotton, 1832.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES.
65
COTTON INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES, 1831. «
Total
number
of em-
ployees.
Males
em-
ployed.
Females
em-
ployed.
Children
under 12
years.
Hand
weavers.
Per cent
of women
of all em-
ploy ees.&
Cotton mills:
259
54
205
79.1
5,025
875
4,090
60
81.4
Vermont -.
4S-1
102
363
19
75.0
13 ,'543
2,665
10, 678
* 80.0
Rhode Island
8,500
1,731
3,297
3,472
38.8
Connecticut
4,315
1,399
2,477
439
57.4
New York
5,510
1,374
3, 652
484
66.3
6,498
2,151
3,070
217
1,OCO
47.2
Pennsylvania
18, 596
6,545
8,351
3,700
44.9
1,352
676
676
50.0
Maryland
2,617
824
1,793
68.5
Virginia
418
143
275
65.8
Total
66,917
18,539
38,927
4,691
4,760
58.1
Bleacheries
738
612
126
17.1
1,505
950
125
c430
8.3
Grand total
67,600
d 23, 301
39, 178
5,121
4,760
58.0
o Table from the Report on the Production and Manufacture of Cotton, 1832, p. 16. New York Conven-
tion of the Friends of Domestic Industry.
b These percentages are not given in the "report," but are added for convenience. They are based upon
the supposition that all the hand weavers were men.
c Report on the Production and Manufacture of Cotton, 1832, p. 18. These 430 "children" were called
"boys."
d This is the total number of "males employed" as given. No explanation can be offered of the fact
that the total of the figures given above equals only 20,101.
Assuming that all the hand weavers were men,0 it appears that
of all the employees in cotton mills about 58 per cent were women.
If the hand-loom weavers be entirely disregarded, 62.6 per cent of
the employees were women.6 Another fact which is evident on
the face of these figures is the high proportion of women in Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and the comparatively
low proportion in the other States, especially New Jersey and Penn-
sylvania, where the hand-loom weavers were found .c The low pro-
portion of women employed in Rhode Island is accounted for by the
surprisingly large proportion of children under 12 years of age,
about 40 per cent of the total number of employees. Children were
also in evidence in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, and a
few in Maine and New Hampshire. This table brings out strikingly
the differences in the employment of women in different sections of
the country.
In a chapter on the employment of women in cotton mills,0" Miss
Abbott gives the following percentages, which are supposed to
a This assumption is probably not far from the truth, as the hand weavers are re-
ported only from the States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where the hand-loom
weavers, so far as is known all men, were active trade-unionists between about 1835 and
1855. But of the "weavers " given in the census of 1850 nearly 30 per cent were women.
6 Miss Abbott gives this percentage as 68 (Women in Industry, p. 102), but her
figures, as there given, do not include either the 4,691 "children under 12 years" or
the "hand weavers," and both were evidently neglected in obtaining this percentage.
c If the hand-loom weavers are disregarded, the percentage would be 56.4 in New
Jersey and 56.1 in Pennsylvania.
d Abbott, Women in Industry, p. 102. For her method of obtaining these figures,
see same work, p. 359.
56 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
represent the employment, on the one hand, of men and boys com-
bined, and, on the other hand, of women and girls combined:
NUMBER OF COTTONMILL EMPLOYEES OUT OF EVERY 10,000 IN POPULATION OVER
10 YEARS OF AGE.
Per cent
Per cent
women
women
Date.
Men.
Women.
formed of
Date.
Men.
Women.
formed of
all em-
all em-
>
ployees.
ployees.
1831...
53
Ill
• 66
1880
40
55
57
1S50
39
74
84
1890
41
51
54
18(X)
41
69
62
1900
52
52
49
1870
38
58
60
1905
47
a This figure, as has already been pointed out, is the percentage of women of the total number of men
and women, disregarding the children and the hand weavers.
It is evident that there has been a steady decrease in the pro-
portion of women, as compared with men, engaged in the manu-
facture of cotton. The same decrease is seen in Table X, where the
apparently sudden break in 1870 is accounted for by the fact that
the percentages for that year and later relate to the employment of
women alone as compared with both men and children.
It is also evident that the number of women cotton-mill operatives
to the total female population 10 years of age and over has steadily
decreased, with the single exception of a slight increase between
1890 and 1900. The proportion of men has fluctuated decidedly.
Since 1870, however, it has steadily increased, and the present tend-
ency appears to be decidedly toward a displacement of women by
men in cotton factories.0
« Some interesting figures in regard to the average number of male and female
employees engaged in each room of the Boott Cotton Mill No. 1 at Lowell for four
weeks during May of 1838 and 1876 were given in a paper read by William A.
Burke before the New England Association of Cotton Manufacturers on October 25,
1876. The figures were as follows (Webber, Manual of Power, p. 97.):
Operatives.
Average
number
in May,
1838.
Average
number
in May,
1870.
Card room (including picking):
Males
14.3
9.33
33.0
11.0
Spinning room:
Males
4.18
2.5
55.0
25.0
Dressing room:
Males
2.0
1.5
Females (including warper tenders)
29.0
4.0
Weaving room:
Males
3.0
2.5
Females
86.0
34.0
Total males
23.48
15. 83
Total females
203.0
74.0
226. 48
89.83
It will be observed that there was a large decrease in the total number of operatives,
which was decidedly more pronounced in every department in the number of women
CHAPTEK II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 57
Meanwhile the proportion of women to the total number of
employees in Massachusetts cotton factories, which in 1831 was 80
per cent, has steadily decreased until in 1905 it was only 48 per cent,
only 1 per cent higher than for the entire United States.
These changes are in part due to the substitution of a foreign for a
native labor supply and in part to improvements in machinery. It
has already been seen that wherever the family system of labor was
adopted more men and, obviously, more children were employed, and
in the North the family system has usually meant foreign labor.
But this change will be later discussed. The essential points to be
here noted are the changes in the technique of the industry which
have made it possible for men to displace women in their traditional
occupation.
The characteristics and relative importance of throstle and mule
spinning as they affect the employment of women have already been
discussed. But in weaving, too, the introduction of improved and fast
looms has led within recent years especially to the substitution of
men for women weavers.0 In the dressing rooms, moreover, in
which, in the early years, women were almost exclusively employed
under a man overseer, men now work amid intense heat, as a result
of the introduction of a new machine called the " slasher." & The
doffers, too, who were formerly girls, are now perhaps as often boys.
Still another reason for the increase in the proportion of men is,
probably, the change in the character of goods produced. In the
early years of the cotton manufacture in this country a large propor-
tion of the goods manufactured were coarse and plain. More com-
plicated looms, requiring a greater amount of adjustment, and more
attention to bleaching, dyeing, and printing, have doubtless tended
to increase the proportion of men employed in the industry as a whole.
The tendency, to sum up, is distinctly toward the displacement of
women by men in the cotton industry. The reasons for this cited by
than of men. Meanwhile the number of spindles had increased from 6,144 to 6,965,
the number of looms from 176 to 194, and the number of pounds of cloth made from
71,686 in 306 hours in 1838 to 71,882 in 240 hours in 1876. The improvements in
machinery, and perhaps also in organization, had evidently displaced both men and
women, but the decrease in the number of women was much greater than in the
number of men.
a Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, p. 32.
& Light is thrown upon the substitution of men for women in the dressing room by the
following incident: In 1866, when the agent of the Merrimac Corporation stopped the
fans in the dressing room and ordered that the girls should put up their own "size,"
which would enable him to discharge from two to four men, the girls went on strike.
(Daily Evening Voice, July 5, 1866). The strike was successful and the girls went
back to work, for a time at least, in the old way. In regard to this strike the Lowell
correspondent of the Boston Voice wrote: "It is a man's work to put up size, and there
are many men who are not able to do the work; and I think there are but few of the
colonels who would not much rather face a rebel battery than work in the dressing
rooms of the cotton mills with the fans off." (Boston Weekly Voice, July 12, 1866.)
58 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
the census of 1900° are that "the operation of some of the modern
machines requires the care of men, because it is beyond the physical
and nervous capacity of women/' that there has been a decrease in the
number, always small, of women employed as mule spinners, and that
the generally improved conditions of labor have enabled a larger pro-
portion of men to support their families without the assistance of the
wife and children, or else the latter find employment in shops and
offices. "The number of places/7 added the census of 1905, 6 "in
which women can profitably be employed in a cotton mill in preference
to men or on an equality with them, steadily decreases as the speed of
machinery increases and as the requirement that one hand shall tend
a greater number of machines is extended. Accordingly, we find that
without any concert of action — perhaps unconsciously to the general
body of manufacturers — there is a slow but steady displacement of
women by men. In the New England States, in twenty-five years,
the proportion of women employed has dropped from 49.7 per cent to
45 percent; that of men has risen from 36.2 per cent to 49 per cent."
WOOL MANUFACTURE.
In the manufacture of wool a smaller proportion of the labor supply
has always been furnished by women than in the manufacture of
cotton. In the Amesbury mills at Newburyport, Mass., which manu-
factured broadcloth and flannels, the proportion of males to females
was said in 1827 to be as 3 to 1 ; c but certain woolen mills in Connecti-
cut in 1831 employed about 44 per cent female hands,d and a woolen
mill at Lowell about 1835 is said to have employed 44 men, 57 women,
and 39 children.6 In the entire State of Massachusetts, in 1837,
there were reported as engaged in woolen mills 3,612 males and 3,485,
or nearly as many, females/ and in 1845, 3,901 males and 3,471
females,^ again nearly as many females.
The first statistics for the entire country of the manufacture of
"woolen and worsted goods/' those of the census of 1820, show only
a Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, p. 32.
6 Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part III, Selected Indus-
tries, pp. 29, 30.
cMerrimack Journal, Lowell, Mass., January 12, 1827, quoted from the Newbury-
port Herald.
<* Documents relative to the Manufactures of the United States, Executive Docu-
ments, first session, Twenty-second Congress.
« Carey, Essay on the Rate of Wages, p. 95.
/ Statistical Tables Exhibiting the Condition and Products of Certain Branches of
Industry in Massachusetts for the Year Ending April 1, 1837, p. 169 et seq.
0 Statistics of the Conditions and Products of Certain Branches of Industry in Massa-
chusetts for the Year Ending April 1, 1845, p. 329 et seq. There were also 298 men
and 548 women reported under "worsted " and 715 men and 319 women reported under
"carpeting."
CHAPTER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 59
about 14 per cent of the employees to have been women, but about 30
per cent were boys and girls, ages not specified.0
For all wool manufactures except "hosiery and knit goods" the
census figures give 41.5 per cent women in 1850, 40.8 per cent in 1860,
37.3 per cent in 1870, 37.0 per cent in 1880, 42.1 per cent in 1890, 40.3
per cent in 1900, and 40.1 per cent in 1905.6 The proportions have
evidently not varied to any great extent, but since 1890 there has been
a slight decrease in women due, doubtless, to the same causes as in the
cotton industry — the increased speed and efficiency of modern machin-
ery. The tendency is not marked in " woolen goods" proper,0 but
is decided in "worsted goods." The proportion of women to men
in carpet factories has, however, increased.0"
HOSIEEY AND KNIT GOODS.
In the hosiery and knitting industry women originally had prac-
tically a monopoly. But in the latter part of the eighteenth century
hand looms operated by men were introduced, and in the thirties
power looms which brought with them the factory system and
almost entirely displaced women hand knitters. In 1845 there were
reported to be employed in the manufacture of hosiery in Mas-
sachusetts 53 "male hands" and 185 "female hands."* Women
evidently to a considerable extent followed the industry into the
factory. In 1844 it was boasted that "a girl can make, with a power
loom, 20 pairs of drawers a day."/ Even in the fifties, however, the
hand-loom weaving of hosiery was an important business in Phila-
delphia. The actual weaving appears to have been done by men,
a American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223,291-297.
& The percentages for 1850 and 1860 are derived from the table in the Twelfth Census,
1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, p. 122; and those for 1870 to 1905
are as given in the Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part I, p.
Ixxxi. In 1850 and 1860 the percentages are for " female hands" and in the other
years for "women 16 years and over." The industries included in this summary are
"woolen goods," "worsted goods," "felt goods," "carpets and rugs, other than rag,"
and "wool hats." The latter is given in Table XI, p. 253, instead of in Table X.
c See Table X, p. 252. The Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected
Industries, p. 99", gives the same figures as in Table X for 1880, 1890, and 1900, but for
1850 gives 16,574 women, making the percentage 42.2; in 1860, 16,519 women, making
the percentage 39.9; and for 1870, 27,682 women, making the percentage 34.6. From
these figures it would appear that there has been a more steady decrease in the pro-
portion of women.
d A carpet factory at Baltimore in 1833 employed from 50 to 60 men and aj)out 40
women and children. (Niles* Register, Baltimore, Oct. 5, 1833, vol. 45, p. 83. } In
1905, 43.7 per cent of the employees engaged in the manufacture of "carpets and rugs,
other than rag, " were women. (Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905,
Part I, p. 5.)
« Statistics of the Conditions and Products of Certain Branches of Industry in
Massachusetts for the Year Ending April 1, 1845, p. 329 et seq.
/ Workingman's Advocate, New York, May 11, 1844. Quoted from the Atlas.
60 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
but the business is said to have afforded " employment to a large
number of females, who sew and finish the various articles after they
leave the frame; and thus at leisure hours add to the income and
comforts of their families."0
Since 1870 hosiery and knit goods show a decided increase in the
proportion of women employees, which was 54 per cent in 1870 and
64.2 per cent in 1900.6 In 1905, moreover, the proportion of women
rose to 66.4 per cent, a little over 2 per cent higher than the per-
centage of "female hands" in 1850. The movement, however, has
fluctuated considerably and the recent change is attributed merely
to the extension of the industry in the South.0
SILK MANUFACTURE.
The manufacture of silk was begun on a small scale in colonial
days, but was only a rare household industry until about 1829, when
the first silk factories began to appear. d About the same time, too,
the raising of the silk worms, as well as the reeling and preparing of
the silk, was persistently urged as a suitable employment for women
and children/ It was pointed out that "this will be a work at
home, by one's own fireside, and in one's own domestic circle; and
will open an employment for females healthful, profitable, and
pleasant."/ In 1835, indeed, it was expected that the development
of silk manufactures would give "profitable employment to vast
numbers of women and children at their own homes. "9
Early in the thirties, however, the power loom was applied to silk
manufacture, and the factory system began to develop.^ In the
silk manufacture of Massachusetts there were reported to be
employed in 1837, 36 "male hands" and 89 "female hands,"*
and in 1845, 28 "male hands" and 128 "female hands."'' These
figures, of course, relate only to Massachusetts, where the pro-
portion of women employees in textile industries has always been
high. But in 1850 females, without distinction of age, appear to have
a Freedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures, 1858, pp. 254, 255.
6 See Table X, p. 252.
c Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part III, Selected Indus-
tries, p. 63.
d National Gazette, Philadelphia, January 13, December 30, 1829.
« Niles' Register, March 19, 1831, and November 16, 1833.
/ The Man, New York, March 17, 1834. This was a labor paper edited by George
Henry Evans.
0 National Gazette, August 22, 1835.
h In 1834 power looms were in use in a factory at Lisbon, Conn. (The Man, April,
1834. Quoted from the New York Journal of Commerce. )
» Statistical Tables Exhibiting the Condition and Products of Certain Branches of
Industry in Massachusetts for the Year Ending April 1, 1837, p. 169, et seq.
1 Statistics of the Condition and Products of Certain Branches of Industry in Massa-
chusetts for the Year Ending April 1, 1845, p. 329 et seq.
CHAPTER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 61
constituted 62.5 per cent of the employees engaged in the manufac-
ture of "silk and silk goods'' and 65.3 per cent of those engaged in
the manufacture of "silk, sewing and twist." In 1860 the propor-
tion of women appears to have been even higher, but in 1870, when
the children were separately given, the women alone in both branches
of silk manufacture constituted only 53.1 per cent of the employees.
In 1900 their proportion was almost precisely the same, 53.2 per
cent, but in 1905 it had risen to 56.8 per cent. The proportion of
children declined from 20.8 per cent in 1870 to 9.2 per cent in 1905,
and the proportion of men rose from 26.1 per cent in 1870 to 34 per
cent in 1905.°
Many changes, however, have occurred in the silk industry which
do not appear on the face of the statistics. Machinery, for instance,
was substituted about 1857 for female labor in the cutting of fringes.6
In the weaving of ribbon, moreover, which was formerly almost all
done by men,c the high-speed looms introduced between 1890 and
1900 are said to have caused a substitution of women for men, be-
cause the ease in manipulation made the work suitable for women.d
OTHER TEXTILE INDUSTRIES.
These four industries, cotton, woolen (including worsted), hosiery
and knitting, and silk, contained in 1900 about 88 per cent of all
the women engaged in the group " textile industries" as given in
Table X. Of the other industries there given, which employed in
1900 over 2,000 women, the proportion of women has, upon the
whole, decreased in the manufacture of "jute and jute goods."
But in 1905, 50.7 per cent of the employees in this industry were
women,6 an increase over 1900. In the manufacture of cordage
and twine there appears to have been a large increase in the pro-
portion of women between 1880 and 1890, but since the latter date
the proportion has steadily declined, being 34.2 per cent in 1905/
In the dyeing and finishing of textiles, too, the proportion of women
a Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part I, p. Ixxxi. See also
Table X, p. 252.
6 Freedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures, 1858, p. 247.
c In 1871 the employment of one woman silk weaver in an establishment at Milton
caused a strike among the men. (The Revolution, May 25, 1871.)
d Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, p. 208. In 1905
there were reported as ribbon weavers 4,398 men, 1,828 women, and 47 children.
(Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part III, Selected Industries,
p. 177.)
« Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part I, p. 11.
/ Idem, p. 7. In 1820 there were reported as engaged in the manufacture of cotton,
flax, and hemp bagging, cables, and cordage 840 men, 18 women, and 406 children,
or 1.4 per cent women. (American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223, 291-
297. Statistics of manufacturing industries collected by the census of 1820.) One
cordage factory in Philadelphia in 1858 is said to have employed 70 hands, about one-
third females. (Freedley, Phi&delphia and Its Manufactures, 1858, p. 374.)
62 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
employees appears to have increased since 1890, being 15.9 per cent
in 1905.a And in the manufacture of "bags, other than paper/'
the proportion of women employees increased steadily and rapidly
from 1850 to 1900, but dropped from 65. 3 per cent in the latter year
to 59.7 per cent in 1905. 6 In the manufacture of " upholstering
materials," in which nearly 2,000 women were engaged in 1900, the
proportion of women employees has increased decidedly since 1880.
As early as 1845, however, a considerable number of women in
New York were engaged in the weaving of hair cloth, which was
done by hand looms worked by two girls, and also in the picking
apart of curled hair, which was generally done, it was said, by
married Irish women and their children at home.c Soon after-
wards, however, power looms were introduced for the weaving of
hair cloth, and one girl could attend ten looms. d
HOURS OF LABOR.
The hours of labor in textile factories in the early part of the
nineteenth century were much longer than within recent years. In
Massachusetts in 1825 the "time of employment" in incorporated
manufacturing companies was "generally 12 or 13 hours each day,
excepting the Sabbath." Of the places which reported the number of
hours in that year, at only two, Ludlow and Newbury, were the
hours as low as 11 a day. At Brimfield, West Boylston, Bellingham,
North Bridgewater, Chelmsford (Lowell), Danvers, Franklin, Fram-
ingham, Hopkinton, Pembroke, Rehoboth, Southbridge, Seekonk,
and Taunton the hours were 12 a day, at Northboro 11J, and at
Springfield 12J. At Duxboro the hours were from sunrise to sunset,
and at Troy (Fall River) and Wellington the employees worked
"all day." e In 1826, 15 or 16 hours constituted, according to the
Hon. William Gray, the working day at Ware, Mass/
a Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part I, p. 7. In 1820 793
persons were engaged in wool carding, cloth dressing, dyeing, and calico printing, of
whom only 7, or nine-tenths of 1 per cent, were women, and 160, or 20.2 per cent,
were boys and girls. (American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223, 291-297.
Statistics of manufacturing industries collected by the census of 1820. )
6 Idem, p. 3.
c For an interesting description of the work of women in the manufacture of hair
cloth and of curled hair at this period see New York Daily Tribune, August 26, 1845.
dGreeley and others, Great industries of the United States, pp. 631,632.
« Massachusetts Legislative Files, 1825, Senate, No. 8074. Manuscript. Reprinted in
Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. V, pp. 57-61. AtTroy ''all
day" meant in winter from as soon as the operatives could see until 7.30 in the even-
ing, with half an hour for breakfast and half an hour for dinner, and in summer from
sunrise to sunset, with half an hour for breakfast and three-quarters of an hour for
dinner. According to Nourse, Genesis of the Power Loom, p. 39, cotton spinners
at the Poignaud and Plant Mill, Worcester County, Mass., worked 12 hours a day
in 1812.
/Gray, Argument on Petition for Ten-Hour Law before Committee on Labor,
February 13, 1873, p. 5.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 63
By the thirties the hours appear to have been, if anything, longer.
At Fall River, about 1830, the hours were from 5 a. m., or as soon
as light, to 7.30 p. m., or till dark in summer, with one-half hour for
breakfast and the same time for dinner at noon,0 making a day of
13 J hours.6 In general the hours of labor in textile factories in
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts in 1832 were said
to be 13 a day.c But at the Eagle Mill, Griswold, Conn., it was said
that 15 hours and 10 minutes actual labor in the mill were required.*
At Paterson, N. J., in 1835, the women and children were obliged
to be at work at 4.30 in the morning. They were allowed half
an hour for breakfast and three-quarters of an hour for dinner, and
then worked as long as they could see.c After the strike of that
year, however, the hours at Paterson were reduced to an average of
ll^a day. f At Manayunk, Philadelphia, in 1833, the hours of work
were said to be 13 a day.0 And a little later the hours at the Schuylkill
factory, Philadelphia, were "from sunrise to sunset, from the 21st of
March to the 20th September, inclusively, and from sunrise until 8
o'clock p. m. during the remainder of the year." One hour was
allowed for dinner and half an hour for breakfast during the first-
mentioned six months, and one hour for dinner during the other half
year. On Saturdays the mill was stopped "one hour before sunset
for the purpose of cleaning the machinery. " h
A detailed statement of the hours of labor in cotton factories, and
one which may be considered to represent roughly conditions from
early in the thirties until the beginning of legislation in 1847, and
even later in many places, was made in 1839 by James Montgomery,
superintendent of the York factories at Saco, Me. He said:*
From the 1st of September to the 1st of May work is commenced in
the morning as soon as the hands can see to advantage, and stopped
regularly during these eight months at half past 7 o'clock in the
evening.
During four of these eight months, viz, from the 1st of November
to the 1st of March, the hands take breakfast before sunrise, that
a Peck and Earl, Fall River and Its Industries, p. 28.
6 See also Fenner, History of Fall River, p. 23.
cFree Enquirer, June 14, 1832; The State Herald: The Factory People's Advocate,
Portsmouth, N. H., June 7, 1832, gave the average hours as 13£.
<* Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, p. 20.
«Idem, p. 43. From the report of the committee appointed by the "Mechanics
and others of Newark" to inquire into the Paterson strike of 1835.
/Commercial Bulletin, St. Louis, August 24, 1835; Workingman's Advocate,
New York, August 29, 1835.
0 Pennsylvanian, August 28, 1833.
ft Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, pp. 49,50. "Rules of
the Schuylkill Manufacturing Company."
* Montgomery, Practical Detail of the Cotton Manufacture of the United States,
1840, pp. 173, 174.
64
WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
they may be ready to begin work as soon as they can see; but from
the 1st of April till the 1st of October 30 minutes are allowed for
breakfast at 7 o'clock, and during the months of March and October
at half past 7.
During the four summer months, or from the 1st of May to the
1st of September, work is commenced at 5 o'clock in the morning
and stopped at 7 in the evening.
The dinner hour is at half past 12 o'clock throughout the year;
the time allowed is 45 minutes during the four summer months and
30 minutes during the other eight.
The following table of the average hours of labor has been furnished
me by an experienced manufacturer, and is deemed as correct an
average as could be given. The time given is for the first of each
month:
AVERAGE HOURS OF WORK PER DAY THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.
Month.
Hours.
Minutes.
Month.
Hours.
Minutes.
January
11
24
July
12
45
February
12
00
August
12
45
March
all
o52
September
12
23
April
13
31
October
12
10
May
12
45
No%7einber
11
56
j une
12
45
December
11
24
a The hours of labor on the 1st of March are less than in February, even though the days are a little
longer, because 30 minutes are allowed for breakfast from the 1st of March to the 1st of September.
Taking one day for each month the whole number of working hours
in the year, according to the preceding table, are 146 hours 44 minutes,
which, divided by twelve for the number of months, gives a result
of 12 hours 13 minutes as the average time for each day, or 73 hours
18 minutes per week; therefore about 73 i hours per week may be
regarded as tne average hours of labor in the cotton factories of Lowell,
and generally throughout the whole of the eastern district of the
United States. In many, perhaps in the majority, of the cotton
factories of the middle and southern districts, the hours of labor in
summer are from sunrise to sunset, or from half past 4 o'clock in
the morning till half past 7 in the evening, being about 13J hours
per day, equal to 82J hours per week. In these factories the average
hours of labor throughout tne year will be about 75£ per week.
The Rev. Henry A. Miles gave this same table of hours as represent-
ing conditions in Lowell in 1845, and added: " In addition to the
above, it should be stated that lamps are never lighted on Saturday
evening, and that four holidays are allowed in the year, viz, Fast
Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day." a The
statements of a writer in the Voice of Industry in 1845, too, giving
the actual hours worked in different factories in Lowell, winter and
summer, appear to indicate that no reduction had occurred, and in
Manchester, N. H., the hours were said to be practically the same as
a Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, p. 101. Nearly the same figures were
given in the Voice of Industry, June 26, 1845.
CHAPTER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 65
at Lowell.a In the same year, moreover, the special committee of
the Massachusetts legislature appointed to consider the subject of
hours gave in the report, as representing the hours of labor at Lowell in
that year, the same table that had earlier been given by Montgomery.5
Not only were the hours very long, but it was frequently complained
that they were often extended from 5 to 30 minutes by various de-
vices. Sometimes, it was said, the correct time was used to begin work,
but slow time to end.c Similar complaints were made in 1846.d
This custom, indeed, was made the subject of bitter complaint by
the committee of the New England Association of Farmers, Mechan-
ics, and Workingmen, which reported in 1832 on "the education of
children in manufacturing districts," as follows :«
In the return from Hope Factory, R. I., it is stated that the prac-
tice is to ring the first bell in the morning at 10 minutes after the
break of day, the second bell at 10 minutes after the first, in 5 minutes
after which, or in 25 minutes after the break of day, all hands are to
be at their labor. The time for shutting the gates at night, as the
signal for labor to cease, is 8 o'clock by the factory time, which is
from 20 to 25 minutes behind the true time. And the only respite
from labor during the day is 25 minutes at breakfast, and the same
number at dinner. From the village of Nashua, in the town of
Dunstable, N. H., we learn that the time of labor is from the break
of day in the morning until 8 o'clock in the evening, and that the
factorv time is 25 minutes behind the true solar time. From the
Arkwright and Harris Mills in Coventry, R. I., it is stated that the
last bell in the morning rings and the wheel starts as early as the
help can see to work, and that, a great part of the year, as early as 4
o'clock. Labor ceases at 8 o'clock at night, factory time, and 1
hour in the da,y is allowed for meals. From the-Rockland Factory
in Scituate, R. I., the Richmond Factory in the same town, the
various establishments at Fall River, Mass., and those at Somerworth,
N. H., we collect similar details. At the numerous establishments
in the village of Pawtucket, the state of things is very similar, with
the exception of the fact that within a few weeks public opinion
has had the effect to reduce the factory time to the true solar stand-
ard. And, in fact, we believe these details to serve very nearly to
illustrate the general practice.
o Voice of Industry, December 26, 1845. At Great Falls, N. H., in 1844 a corre-
spondent of the Working Man's Advocate (Sept. 7, 1844) said that "the girls are called
to their work at 5 o'clock in the morning, at 7 the bell rings for breakfast, and in 15
minutes the bell again calls them to work; they are allowed 30 minutes for dinner,
are again called to work and kept in until 7 o'clock, making in all more than 13 hours,
for which they receive $1.25 to $2 per week."
& Massachusetts Report on Hours of Labor, House Document No. 50, 1845, p. 9.
Reprinted in Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. VIII, pp.
133-151.
'The State Herald: The Factory People's Advocate, January 6, 1831; Luther,
Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, p. 19.
d Voice of Industry, February 27, 1846. The Voice of Industry was a labor paper,
the organ of the factory operatives.
« Free Enquirer, June 14, 1832.
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol 9 5
66 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
From these facts, your committee gather the following conclusions:
(1) That on a general average, the youth and children that are
employed in the cotton mills are compelled to labor at least 13£,
perhaps 14 hours, per day, factory tune; and (2) that in addition to
this, there are about 20 or 25 minutes added, by reason of that being
so much slower than the true solar time; thus making a day of labor
to consist of at least 14 hours, winter and summer, out of which is
allowed, on an average, not to exceed 1 hour for rest and refreshment.
Overtime, too, was frequent. Many of the corporations at Lowell,
according to Mr. John Quincy Adams Thayer, ran " a certain quantity
of their machinery, certain portions of the year, until 9, and half past
9 o'clock at night, with the same set of hands." °
The "lighting up" period, during which the operatives worked
"by lamplight in the morning as well as at night,"6 also caused a
great deal of complaint. "By candlelight in the morning and by
candlelight at night they must prosecute their painful labor," said
the Awl.c The 20th of March, when the lights were "blown out"
for the season, was regularly celebrated in factory towns by the
operatives, "who decorate their large hanging lamps with flowers,
and form garlands of almost every ingenious description in honor of
'blow-out7 evening."* The operatives, indeed, found cold comfort
in the splendid "view of the mills at evening, when lighted during the
whiter months," when, from "some eminence it seems as if the whole
city were celebrating some holiday in a general iUumination." « Tr>
1846, indeed, there was a strike at Nashua, N. H., against work "by
candlelight." /
It should be said, however, that the operatives did not all work
these hours. The warpers, for instance, who were obliged to stand
constantly at their work, were not required to work as many hours
as the other operatives, "being frequently permitted to leave the
mill some hours before the rest." 9 Dressers, drawers-in, harness
knitters, cloth-room girls, and carders are also mentioned as not
working so long as spinners and weavers, while even the latter could
sometimes give their work to a "spare hand." h
The Reverend Mr. Miles, indeed, asserted that, though these were the
hours during which the wheels were run, "by a system adjusted to
secure this end, by keeping engaged a number of spare hands, by
a Thayer, Review of the Report of the Special Committee * * * on the Petition
Relating to the Hours of Labor, Boston, 1845, p. 16.
& Workingman's Advocate, October 5, 1844.
c The Awl, Lynn, Mass., October 2, 1844. Quoted from the New England Oper-
ratives' Magazine. The Awl was a labor paper.
<* Voice of Industry, March 26, 1847.
« Handbook for the Visitor to Lowell, 1848, p. 34.
/ Voice of Industry, October 2, 1846.
0 Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, p. 82.
& Lowell Offering, December, 1845, vol. 5, p. 281.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 67
occasional permissions of absence, and by an allowed exchange of
work among the girls, the average number of hours in which they are
actually employed is not more than 104." ° This, he said, was not
a mere assertion, but had been ascertained by a careful examination
of the records kept by the overseer of Boott Mill No. 1, during one year.
In this mill, he said, were 106 girls who had been employed a year,
working by the job. Disregarding 29 other girls working by the job
but wTho had not worked a year, he said that the record of the 106
girls was as follows: 6 "In the weaving room 56 girls worked 14,097
days. In the dressing room 17 girls worked 4,403J days. In the
spinning room 21 girls worked 5,615 days. In the card room 12
girls worked 3,536f days. Total, 106 girls working 27,625 days."
This gave as the ' ' average number of days per year to each girl,
260.86. Average number of hours per day, to each girl, 10 hours
and 8 minutes." The average number of hours of 31 girls who
worked by the day, for a period of 2 months, he found to have
been 10 hours and 42 minutes. These figures, he said, did not
include absences when the girls put their work into the hands of
friends. He acknowledged, however, that in some cases, called
"rare exceptions/' extra hours were run for the purpose of equal-
izing the work, when the lights " never hi the whole mill, but only
in one or two of its rooms, are kept burning till 9 or 10 o'clock." c
The labor press early began to protest against the long-hour system
and to agitate for a 10-hour day, d and strikes for shorter hours were
frequent/ Naturally the agitation was uphill work. One writer,
replying to Seth Luther's Address to the Workingmen/ asked:
"What class of working people labor so few hours in every 24 as
factory people labor in the cotton mills?" They leave off work, he
complained, at half past 7 in the evening while "nobody, at this
season of the year, thinks of leaving off work, on ordinary occasions
before 9, 10, or even 11 o'clock." Horace . Greeley, even, thought
that "the factory women work as few hours as those of any other
class of female laborers, while the fact that the mills are greatly
o Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, p. 103.
6 Idem, p. 105.
c Idem, p. 107.
<* The State Herald: The Factory People's Advocate, January 6, 1831, said: "The
practice of summoning people to work at half past 5 in the morning, and keeping them
till 8 at night, in the winter, and from daylight till sunset in the summer, at factories,
is abominable, and without precedent in other business; no other class of people ever
think of laboring more than 12 hours, summer or winter. Now if people must do two
days' work in one, they ought to be paid for it. If 12 hours' labor is considered a day's
work, then, if any work 16, they ought to be paid for 4 hours' extra labor, and in the
same proportion for a greater or less degree of time."
< History of Women in Trade Unions, Vol. X of this report, p. 61 et seq.
/ A Review of Seth Luther's Address to the Workingmen of New England, by a
Factory Hand, Waltham, November 28, 1832, p. 21.
68 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
preferred to housework by nine-tenths of those who have tried both,
is undeniable." "Letus all," he added, "stand by the tariff."0
Even the operatives were often, it was said, against a reduction of
hours, believing that it would result in a reduction of wages. Harriet
Farley, editor of the Lowell Offering, thought a reduction in hours
would be desirable "were the factory operatives all young, unmar-
ried, and always to remain single, and always without others de-
pendent upon them," but thought it would work hardship to widows
who were toiling for their children, to children who were toiling for
their parents, and to many others. b
In spite of rebuffs, however, the work of educating public opinion
progressed. Petitions for 10-hour legislation, c signed by hundreds
of factory girls/ were repeatedly presented to the Massachusetts
legislature, and repeatedly legislative committees were appointed to
inquire into the subject.
Verse, too, was employed by the factory girls to express their
aspiration for a 10-hour day. According to "Almira:"
Great and glorious is our cause,
Commanded by our Maker's laws;
Those laws which elevate mankind
Command us to enlarge our minds,
To cultivate our mental powers,
And thus endow these minds of ours.
Time, for this is all we claim,
Time, we struggle to obtain.
Then in the name of Freedom rise,
Nor rest, till we obtain the prize.
— Almira, in Voice of Industry, February 6, 1846.
a New York Weekly Tribune, November 24, 1845. The Voice of Industry, Novem-
ber 28, 1845, replied: "That much wrong may be found in other departments of female
labor, * * * is too true, but this is no good reason why we should cover up and
attempt to justify the system of factory oppression which is making such sad inroads
upon the happiness of our people, and general good of the country."
& Lowell Offering, vol. 3, p. 192.
cThe "Mechanics and Laborers' Association of Peterborough, N. H." in 1846
declared for a 12-hour day, "including the time allowed for meals," and invited
"the female operatives in the several manufactories in this town, one and all, to unite
in petitioning our legislature for the passage of a law establishing the 12-hour system."
(Voice of Industry, Feb. 13, 1846.)
<*In 1845 four petitions were presented, two from Lowell, one from Fall River, and
one from Andover. One of the Lowell petitions asked for a law providing that no
corporation or private citizen should "be allowed, except in cases of emergency, to
employ one set of hands more than 10 hours per day," and the other asked for a law
making 10 hours a day's work "where no specific agreement is entered into between
the parties." The first was signed by 850 persons and the last by only 300. A very
large proportion of the Lowell petitioners, but none of the 500 from Fall River, were
said to be females. (Massachusetts Report on Hours of Labor. Massachusetts House
Document No. 50, 1845, pp. 1, 2. Reprinted in Documentary History of American
Industrial Society, Vol. VIII, pp. 133, 134.)
ril.M'TER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 69
An "unknown factory girl," too, who longed to be left alone with
her harp and her grief "far from the factory's deaf'ning sound,"
nevertheless sang:
But, if I still must wend my way,
Uncheered by hope's sweet song,
God grant that, in the mills, a day
May be but "ten hours" long.
—Anonymous, in Voice of Industry, February 20, 1846.
In 1847, as a result of this agitation, a 10-hour law was passed in
New Hampshire.0 Maine & and Pennsylvania c followed the example in
1848, New Jersey in 1851,d and Rhode Island in 1853.e It should not
be supposed, however, that these early laws actually established the
10-hour day. As a matter of fact public opinion had been roused to
favor a 10-hour day, but had not yet grasped the technical difficul-
ties of its enforcement. Most of the early laws allowed "contracting
out," and were applicable only to corporations.
The New Hampshire law, for example, was accompanied by a pro-
vision that the operatives might contract for longer hours. As a
result, though public meetings were organized and an active agitation
carried on to prevent the operatives from signing the "special con-
tracts" prepared by the companies, the law proved wholly inef-
fective. The companies promptly discharged all the operatives who
refused to sign/ It was said that only from one-third to one-half
of the operatives employed by the Nashua Corporation remained at
work 0 and "some mills or parts of mills were stopped." h All soon
filled up with fresh hands, however, and everything went on as
before. Moreover, the operatives who refused to sign were black-
listed even by the Massachusetts employers. "At the present time,"
said the Manchester Democrat,* " when the law of our State provides
that the operatives need not work more than 10 hours, unless he or
she so pleases, one would hardly have supposed that we had among
us men so devoid of humanity, so emphatically blackhearted, as to
'blacklist' an operative for exercising a right conferred by the statute,
and one too they have so loudly asserted they had the liberty to
exercise at any time, free and unmolested. Yet such is the fact.
Operatives who have refused to sign the 'special contracts/ binding
them to work 'as long as the mills run/ have been discharged and
a Acts of 1847, ch. 488.
6 Acts of 1848, ch. 83.
c Acts of 1848, No. 227.
d Acts of 1851, p. 321.
« Acts of 1853 (Jan. session), p. 245.
/Voice of Industry, September 3, 17, 1847.
fldem, September 17, 1847.
» Idem, October 1, 1847.
* Quoted in the Voice of Industry, September 17, 1847.
70 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
'blacklisted.' Yes, more than this, operatives who had been to
Lowell and engaged work on the corporations, have been refused
work after word had been sent from Manchester that they had
refused to 'take the new regulation papers/ More than this even,
operatives who went to Lowell the past week were refused entrance
to the yards, and told in the most impudent manner that orders had
been given to admit or employ no hands from Manchester."
The Pennsylvania and New Jersey laws, too, were the cause of
severe and prolonged strikes on the part of the operatives who
attempted to secure their enforcement, especially at Allegheny City,
Pa., and Gloucester and Paterson, N. J. a In the end many of the
Pennsylvania and New Jersey factories adopted the 10-hour day
with a corresponding reduction in wages, but as late as 1867 the girls
of the Eagle and Anchor mills at Pittsburg went on strike against a
reduction of wages with no corresponding reduction of the 12 hours
a day during which they appear to have been working.6 It should
be noted in this connection, too, that when the New Jersey law went
into effect in 1851 the factories of that State had been working only
Hi hours, while those of New England were working from 12| to
14 hours a day. c
In April, 1847, d however, a new set of regulations went into effect
at Lowell which reduced the hours 15 minutes a day during eight
months of the year and 30 minutes a day during the other four
months, by additions to the meal times. The legislative committee
on hours of labor reported in 1850 that, as a result of this reduction,
the average daily time of labor throughout the year was 11 hours,
58 1 minutes, or less than 2 minutes short of 12 hours. By months
the hours were as follows : *
Month.
Hours.
Minutes.
Month.
Hours.
Minutes.
January
11
g
July
12
30
February
11
45
August
12
30
March
11
22
11
53
April
13
1
October
11
40
May
12
30
November
11
41
June
12
30
December
11
g
In this reduction the Manchester, Nashua, and Dover companies
appear to have followed the example of Lowell/
a See History of Women in Trade Unions, Vol. X of this report, pp. 63, 68, for
account of these strikes. At Allegheny City in 1845 the hours were said to be 11J a
day. (Voice of Industry, Oct. 2, 1845.)
& Boston Weekly Voice, September 12, 1867; Workingman'e Advocate, September
14, 1867.
cNew York Daily Tribune, July 14, 23, 1851.
d Voice of Industry, May 7, June 11, 1847.
« Massachusetts House Document 153, 1850. Reprinted in Documentary History
of American Industrial Society, Vol. VIII, pp. 151-186.
1 Voice of Industry, May 7, 1847.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 71
The next change in the hours of labor at Lowell was made in
September, 1853, when the companies, in another effort to stem the
rising tide of the 10-hour movement, voluntarily reduced the hours
to an average of 11 a day.0 Even before this change was made, how-
ever, it was stated that the working time in some of the other manu-
facturing establishments in Massachusetts was considerably longer
than at Lowell. b In 1856, however, the mills at Lawrence reduced
their time to 10 J hours, c and by the time the 10-hour law was passed
in Massachusetts the hours at Lawrence were 62£ and at Lowell 64£
a week. d
In other places, moreover, occasional reductions in hours were
made, sometimes voluntarily with the same object as at Lowell and
sometimes as the direct result of a strike. « In 1861, for instance, a
strike in the mills at Great Barrington, Mass., resulted in a reduc-
tion from 13 to 11 hours, f and the same reduction was effected in
1865 by strikes at Southbridge, Taunton, and other mills in eastern
Massachusetts, and also at Lonsdale, K. I. g At the latter place the
hours, which had been 12 from 1830 to 1865, were further reduced in
1870 to 10J.A At Fall River a reduction to 10 hours a day was made
on January 1, 1867,* and for 21 months the mills were run on this
schedule, but in 1873 they were running 62 \ hours per week. Soon
afterwards, however, the agitation for a 10-hour law caused a reduc-
es Cowley, History of Lowell, second edition, 1868, p. 149. About a year earlier they
had reduced the hours in the machine shops to 11, while, as a resolution of the Ten-
Hours State Convention of 1852 put it, "The delicate women and feeble children in
their factories, are left to toil on, apparently unthought of or uncared for." (The Hours
of Labor, Address of the Ten-Hours State Convention to the People of Massachusetts,
1852, p. 8.)
6 Massachusetts House Document 122, 1853, p. 3.
c Gray, Argument on Petition for Ten-Hour law, 1873, p. 5.
d Idem, p. 6.
« As early as 1827 it was stated that the hours at the Amesbury Mills (woolen) at
Amesbury, Mass., were "at the present season," i. e., January, from 8 in the morning
to 8 in the evening, with intermissions including about 2 hours, which, if the inter-
missions were not exaggerated, would have given these mills a 10-hour day. (Merri-
mack Journal, Jan. 12, 1827. Quoted' from the Newburyport Herald.) But, in
1850, according to a statement of the superintendent, the hours were reduced "one a
day" by doing away "with working after dark" (Harriet Farley, Operatives' Reply to
Hon. Jere Clemens, Lowell, 1850. Quoted from a statement of the superintendent
sent Miss Farley by J. G. Whittier) and in 1852 there was an unsuccessful strike at
these mills against the abolition of a luncheon privilege of 15 minutes each half day.
(Mass. House Doc., 122, 1853. Eleventh Annual Report (Mass.) Bureau of Statistics
of Labor, 1880, pp. 9-14.)
/Eleventh Annual Report (Mass.) Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1880, p. 19. Daily
Evening Voice, September 29, 1865.
g Eleventh Annual Report (Mass.) Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1880, p. 21. Daily
Evening Voice, September 29, October 7, 1865.
ft Tenth Census, 1880, Vol. XX, p. 366.
< Boston Weekly Voice, December 6, 1866. Cowley, The Ten-Hours Law, pp. 5-7.
72 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
tion to two- thirds time. But on December 1, 1873, full time was
resumed and continued until October 1, 1874, when, the 10-hour
law having passed the state legislature and received the governor's
sanction, the mills were again put upon short time.0
A 10-hour day was actually in force in 1865 in one large Lowell
mill, 6 and in the Syracuse woolen mills, c and two years later in the
Atlantic Mills at Lawrence,** but in 1866 the Massachusetts com-
mission on hours of labor reported that 11 hours a day was the
general rule in large manufacturing towns, and that the Waltham
Mills worked 11J or 11J hours, and the Middlefield Woolen Fac-
tory 13 hours. e In the same year the five large cotton mills at
Allegheny City, in spite of the Pennsylvania law, were running 11 J
hours a day/ At Troy, N. Y., too, the hours were 11J.0
Retrograde movements, too, sometimes occurred. At Woonsocket,
R. L, the day's work was reduced in 1853, as the result of a strike, to
11 hours and 23 minutes. In 1858, however, by agreement between the
manufacturers, the hours were raised to 12 a day in most of the mills,*
and in 1865 the hours at Woonsocket were said to have been 12}
a day, beginning at 5 o'clock.* A strike for shorter hours occurred at
Woonsocket in September, 1865.'
A similar retrograde movement is recorded of a braid mill in Nor-
wich, Conn., where the women employees were notified in 1868 that
they must in future work 11 hours for the same pay that they had
been receiving for a 10-hour day.*
In general, the hours of labor in Massachusetts, in spite of the lack
of legislation, were reduced first, other States following. l When the
mills of Massachusetts ran 12 hours a day, "those of Rhode Island
and New Hampshire ran 13 hours. When her mills came down to 11
a C. H. Baxter, History of the Fall River Strike, pp. 6, 7.
6 Boston Weekly Voice, April 19, 1866.
c Daily Evening Voice, November 16, 1865. Boston Weekly Voice, December 6,
1866.
<* Gray, Argument on Petition for Ten-Hour Law, 1873, p. 5. Cowley, The Ten-
Hours Law, pp. 5-7.
« Boston Weekly Voice, March 8, 1866.
/ Daily Evening Voice, September 12, 1866. A 10-hour strike occurred at Alle-
gheny City early in the year. (Fincher's Trades' Review, February 24, 1866.)
Q Workingman's Advocate, November 10, 1866.
* Daily Evening Voice, August 12, 1865. These facts were brought out in the case
of Samuel Harris v. Woonsocket Company et al., United States circuit court, June
term, 1864, in which the minority mill owners of Pawtucket attempted to force the
majority to adopt an 11-hour day in order to effect an equitable distribution of the
water power.
< Idem, August 4, 1865. Quoted from the Boston Journal.
;Idem, September 23, 29, 1865.
* Workingman's Advocate, March 21, 1868.
* Maine, however, adopted 11 hours a little earlier than Massachusetts. (Gray,
Argument on Petition for Ten-Hour Law, Feb. 13, 1873, p. 28.)
CHAPTER H. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 73
hours a day, theirs came down to 12."° The early laws of the other
States were, indeed, practically dead letters, owing to their contracting-
imt clauses. In Massachusetts, where the leaders of the 10-hour move-
ment insisted upon effective legislation, the manufacturers reduced
hours to prevent the enactment of laws. But even there the women
employed in textile factories generally worked 1 1 hours a day until
prevented by legislation. Since 1874, however, the large manufac-
turing States have one by one regulated the hours of labor of women
in manufacturing establishments, with the result that the working
time is decidedly shorter.
WAGES.
The wages of women in textile factories were at first considerably
higher than in other occupations in which they were engaged.6 This
was especially true in New England. But in all parts of the country
the establishment of textile factories distinctly tended to raise the
average of women's wages. Before the introduction of manufac-
tures, according to Aiken,c the ordinary rate of women's wages in
New England was from $2.17 to $3 a month and board. By 1833,
men's labor would command, he said, 50 per cent more than formerly,
but women's wages had risen from 200 to 300 per cent. Women's
wages in this country, too, were considerably higher as compared with
men's wages than in England. d
The effect of the textile factories upon women's wages in other
occupations was early evident and was a cause of congratulation or
a American Workman, January 1, 1870.
& Mathew Carey in 1830 contrasted the condition of women in textile factories with
that of seamstresses, and recommended that the latter be sent to factory districts where
they could be employed as spinners and weavers. (Carey's Miscellaneous Pamphlets,
No 12. "To the Editor of the New York Daily Sentinel, On the Remuneration
for Female Labor," 1830, p. 5.) And in 1845 Horace Greeley, in an editorial
on the Allegheny City strike, stated that the girls employed there were getting
"at least twice as much as working women throughout the country average and
getting their pay promptly." (New York Daily Tribune, October 14, 1845.) Again,
in 1858, in commenting on a strike at Chicopee (Springfield), the Springfield
Republican remarked that the girls there employed "could earn at the reduced
wages from $2 to $2.50 a week above their board, which is more than they could
get at other business and from 75 cents to $1 more than the pay for housework."
(Quoted in the Lowell Dailv Citizen and News, April 9, 1858.) One earlier writer,
however, considered this merely an evidence of the bad conditions under which
women worked in the textile factories, for, said he, "no one supposes that the opera-
tives are paid anything more than is sufficient to secure their services." (Corpora-
tions and Operatives, being an Exposition of the Condition of Factory Operatives
and a Review of the "Vindication," by Elisha Bartlett. By a Citizen of Lowell.
Lowell, 1843, p. 52.)
c Aiken, Labor and Wages at Home and Abroad, 1849, p. 29.
<* H. C. Carey, Essay on the Rate of Wages, 1835, p. 81. But in 1866 the Massachu-
setts Commission on Hours of Labor reported that the wages of women in textile fac-
tories were from one-fourth to two-thirds the wages of men. (Daily Evening Voice,
March 3, 1866.)
74 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
complaint, according to the point of view. At the time of the Lynn
shoe binders' strike of 1834 for higher wages, their " Address" said:
"It is well known that in factories young ladies receive a high price
for their services, and unless our females receive nearly an equal
amount, they may be induced to seek employment in the factory, the
printing office, or some other place where they may receive a just com-
pensation for their services."0
The difficulty of hiring women to do housework in the neighborhood
of the factories was a frequent cause of complaint. They could earn,
it was said, more money in less time and with less labor in the factories
than in domestic service.6
Though the wages of domestic servants rose from 50 cents a week
before the factory system to about $1.50 a week in 1849,c still they
did not keep pace with the wages offered by the textile mills.
At the Poignaud and Plant Mill, Worcester County, Mass., in 1812,
women cotton spinners received from $2.33 to $2.75 a week, out of
which they paid $1.08 to $1.16 per week for board, including washing.**
About 1814, in Fall River, cotton-mill operatives received from $2.75
to $3.25 a week and paid $1.75 for board.* At Lowell women's wages
in 1827 were said to be from $1 to $3 a week in addition to board/
and the Amesbury woolen mill is said to have paid 50 cents a day, or
$3 a week.? In 1829, however, wages at Lowell were given as only
$1.75 a week in addition to board.* At Paterson, N. J., too, women's
wages in cotton mills in 1830 were about $2 a week.'
According to the report of the New York Convention of the Friends
of Domestic Industry on the Production and Manufacture of Cotton I
the average wages in Massachusetts in 1831 were $2.25, in New
Hampshire $2.60, in Vermont $1.84, in Maine $2.33, in Connecticut
and Rhode Island $2.20, in New York and New Jersey $1.90, in
Pennsylvania and Delaware $2, in Maryland $1.91, and hi Virginia
$1.58. It is probable, however, that there was an actual reduction
in wages about the end of the twenties and beginning of the thirties.
It is evident that wages were considerably higher in the New
England States, except Vermont, which had comparatively few
factories, than farther south. In Maryland, indeed, wages were
« Lynn Record, January 8, 1834.
& A Review of Seth Luther's Address to the Workingmen of New England, by A
Factory Hand, Waltham, November 28, 1832, p. 21.
c Aiken, Labor and Wages, 1849, p. 29.
d Nourse, Genesis of the Power Loom, Proceedings, American Antiquarian Society,
vol. 16, p. 39.
« Peck and Earl, Fall River and Its Industries, p. 19.
/ Merrimack Journal, March 30, 1827.
0 Idem, January 12, 1827.
*Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, August 26, 1829.
1 Trumbull, History of Industrial Paterson, p. 52.
i Page 16.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 75
considered oppressively low. In 1829 a correspondent of the Mechan-
ics' Free Press,0 writing from Ellicotts Mills, Md., complained bitterly
of a reduction of from 12 J to 50 per cent hi the Union factory in that
neighborhood. " Among those," said this correspondent, "who are
obliged to submit to and comply with the mandate of this relentless
ruler (of a free people) are a number of females, and the children of
widows, who have been induced to locate here for the purpose of
getting work and subsistence for their families; and whose pre-
viously scanty pittance being thus abridged, will heap additional
misery on their already heavily oppressed shoulders." The next
year it was stated 6 that another factory of the same neighborhood
had not only reduced wages at about the same tune as the Union
factory, but "pay their hands off with depreciated paper after there
is from four to five months' wages due." This practice was said to be
indulged in, too, by a manufacturer of Morrisville, Pa., who paid his
hands "with money of his own make, which will pass nowhere but
at his own store, for dry goods, groceries, etc., on which he has from
10 to 15 per cent profit."0
The truck-store system was in use, too, at Fall River, Paterson,
and doubtless at other places. At Paterson a circular issued in 1835
declared that this system "reduces us to the disagreeable necessity
of paying whatever price the extravagance of the storekeeper may
think proper to demand." Further complaint was there made that —
Third. They have hi a number of instances, where settlements
have been demanded, kept back one week's work, and demanded a
receipt in full.
Fourth. They have been uniformly in the practice of deducting
one quarter from each day's labor when we were behind the tune but
five minutes.d
At Lowell, however, the operatives were paid promptly in cash.
Payments, under the factory rules, were generally made monthly/
In 1833 and 1834, and again in 1836 and 1837, the manufacturers
were hard pressed financially and were driven to reduce wages/
a Free Enquirer, May 6, 1829. Copied from the Mechanics' Free Press, Philadelphia.
6 Mechanics' Free Press, October 16, 1830.
c Idem, October 30, 1830.
d Brothers, United States of North America as they are, not as they are generally
described: Being a cure for radicalism. London, 1840, pp. 242,243. Circular issued
by factory operatives.
« ''Conditions on which help is hired by the Cocheco Manufacturing Company,
Dover, N. H." (The Man, March 11, 1834, and Luther, Address to the Workingmen
of New England, third edition, 1836, p. 36.) "General rules of the Lowell Manufac-
turing Company." (Luther, Address to the Workingmen of New England, third
edition, pp. 40-42.) "Regulations to be observed by all persons employed in the
factories of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company." (Handbook to Lowell, 1848,
pp. 42-44. Reprinted in Documentary Histary of American Industrial Society, Vol.
VII, pp. 135, 136.)
/ See Carey's Select Scraps, vol. 48, p. 368, and Boston Courier, March 13, 1834,
and June 3, 1837.
76 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE -EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
These reductions were the cause of a number of strikes, a especially
in 1834 and 1836, but the resistance of the employees was made impos-
sible by the panic of 1837. In 1842 there was another period of
depression when wages are said to have sunk from an average of $2 a
week and board to an average of $1.50 a week and board.6 About
1845, too, wages of woolen-factory operatives were greatly reduced, c
and in August of that year many of the girls are said to have left the
Lowell mills on account of reductions in wages.d The reductions
continued in 1846.
The Newburyport Advertiser announced on January 23, 1846,*
that "the weavers in one of the factories in this town have recently
had their wages cut down 10 per cent/' and that the overseers had so
arranged the looms as to make the reduction amount to more than
15 per cent. In 1848, too, reductions occurred in a number of places,
especially at Waltham in February ' and at Lowell during the
summer. Q The state of the market was cited as the excuse. In
1866, again, wages were reduced in one of the mills at Paterson, N. J.,ft
and in 1867 in three woolen mills at Waterford, R. I.* At Fall River
a reduction of 10 per cent was made on December 1, 1873, and another
of the same proportion in 1874. The latter, however, was success-
fully resisted on the initiative of the women weavers.-* Other
reductions which were the cause of strikes are given in Table A.
Many of these reductions, however, were merely in the piece
rates, and by the improvement of machinery and the increase in
the number of looms tended the girls were enabled to earn as much
in a week as before.* Between 1842 and 1846, indeed, the net result
of the changes in piece rates and in machinery and organization
of labor force appears to have been a rise in average wages, at least
at Lowell. The situation was clearly stated by Sarah G. Bagley,
one of the labor leaders of the day, who said: "A few years ago no
a See Table A, p. 260.
& Aiken, Labor and Wages, 1849, p. 29. The New York Daily Tribune, October 22,
1845, said that during November and December, 1842, wages were reduced 25 per cent.
c Voice of Industry, July 17, 1845. Quoted from Lowell Patriot.
<* Idem, August 14, 1845. Shortly afterwards the Morning News (New York)
announced that "since the establishment of the present tariff" 1,300 girls had been
discharged from the Lowell factories and the wages of the remainder reduced 50
cents per week. But Horace Greeley absolutely denied this. (New York Weekly
Tribune, October 29, 1845.)
< Quoted in Voice of Industry, February 6, 1846.
/ Boston Journal, February 10, 1848.
9 Pittsburg Morning Post, July 15, 1848.
& Boston Weekly Voice, June 7, 1866.
i Idem, August 22, 1867. In this case wages were reduced 15 per cent.
i Baxter, History of the Fall River Strike, 1875. See History of Women in Trade
Unions, Volume X of this report, p. 103.
* New York Daily Tribune, January 3, 1843. Quoted from the Lowell Courier.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 77
girl was required to tend more than two looms. Now they tend
four, and some five; and because they make a few cents more than
they did on two, it is trumpeted all over the country that their
wages have been raised."0 "It is an ingenious scheme," said the
Voice of Industry of April 17, 1846, " which a few capitalists and
politicians have invented, to blind the eyes of the people — that
because the operatives receive one-eighth more pay in the aggregate,
for accomplishing a third more labor with the same facilities, than
they did a few years ago that the price of labor has advanced.
The price of weaving a yard of cloth never was lower in this country
than at this time, the price for tending spinning and carding never
was lower, or the wages of those operatives who work by the week."
Mrs. Robinson said that the girls kept their own account of labor
done by the piece, which was always accepted and they were paid
accordingly.6 The Rev. Henry A. Miles, however, recorded that in
1845 "on the speeders, throstles, warpers, and dressers, there are
clocks, which mark the quantity of work that is done. The clocks
are made to run one week, at the end of which the overseer transfers
the account to a board which hangs in the room in the sight of all
the operatives. From this board the monthly wages of each opera-
tive are ascertained."0
The average wages of women in textile factories from about 1833
to about 1850 appear to have been $2 a week and board, which
varied from $1 .25 to $1 .50 a week. Out of these wages it was claimed
that the girls were able to save considerable sums which they used
to assist their families or deposited in the savings banks. In 1841,
according to Doctor Bartlett, the treasurer of the Lowell Institution
for Savings reported that out of 1,976 depositors in that institution
978 were factory girls, and out of deposits of $305,796.75 about
$100,000 belonged to them.0" "It is a common thing," he said,
a Voice of Industry, April 24, 1846.
& Robinson, Loom and Spindle, p. 71.
c Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, pp. 80, 81.
<* Bartlett, Vindication of the Character and Condition of the Females Employed in
the Lowell Mills, pp. 21,22. The amount of these deposits by factory girls was
greatly exaggerated by the newspapers of the day. The Philadelphia Saturday
Museum, for example, said in 1844: "It is mentioned as a remarkable fact, that the
deposits in the savings bank, of the females working in the factories at Lowell, amount
to some $500,000 We hardly know which most to feel, pity or contempt, for those
who can make a marvel of the circumstance that 10,000 women, toiling with slavish
devotion for years, are able to lay aside a few beggarly earnings, the gross amount of
which is $500,000. If leisure, and wealth, and enjoyment should be the portion of
all in a country where equal and exact justice in every position and relation of life
should be possessed, how must we estimate the ratio of justice accorded to labor,
where 10,000 female laborers are made 10,000 wonders because they can save up a
few dollars apiece, not a sum sufficient to support a person decently for three months?"
(Quoted in the Working Man's Advocate, August 10, 1844.) In 1845 the Concord
78 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
"for one of these girls to have $500 in deposit, and the only reason
why she does not exceed this sum is the fact that the institution
pays no interest on any larger sum than this. After reaching this
amount, she invests her remaining funds elsewhere."0 In 1845 the
Kev. Henry A. Miles gave practically the same figures in regard to
savings-bank deposits and depositors,6 and in 1856 it was stated
that two-thirds of the deposits in the savings banks of Lowell were
made by factory operatives.0
Many remarkable stories, too, were told of individual women
operatives who were reputed to have acquired comfortable fortunes
by their factory labor. These stories, however, were denied by the
labor press of the day, which even asserted that the annual vacations
in which the girls were said to indulge were not evidences of comfort
but of ill health. When, for instance, the Lowell Courier reported
that there had recently called at its office a woman about 45 years
old who stated that she had been an operative in the Lowell mills
19 years, that her health had been improved by factory labor, that
she had saved about $2,000, which she had invested in a farm, and
had given her parents $1,150, and that she had meanwhile been mar-
ried and had one son/ the Voice of Industry sarcastically remarked : *
Why are not the daughters of the manufacturers, agents, and
superintendents to be found over the loom, the spinning frame, in
the carding and dressing rooms, beside "these fresh spirits, gathered
down from the green mountains and peaceful valleys," gaining an
education, ' 'improving their healths," and laying up their "two thou-
sand dollars" after buying a farm worth eleven hundred?
Later Miss Bagley referred to this story and stated that, being
"somewhat skeptical," and being employed in the same room with
the woman about whom this remarkable story had been told, she
had inquired and had discovered that the woman, during the 19
years, had been absent 6 years on long visits, besides a number of
Freeman stated that "the amount of money deposited by the female operatives in
the Lowell Savings Bank is equal to $1,250 for every factory girl in the place. Some
of them have saved $2,000 each, the interest of which would yield a handsome sup-
port." (Quoted in the Voice of Industry, September 4, 1845.) But the Voice of
Industry flatly stated that this was a lie and proved its point by giving statistics
of the number of factory girls in Lowell and the total amount of money deposited,
according to a statement of the "Lowell Savings Institution." The total amount
on deposit, it found, was less than that reported to be deposited by the factory girls.
Moreover, it estimated that one-half the total was deposited by men in and out of
the mills. (Voice of Industry, September 11, 1845.)
o Bartlett, Vindication of the Character and Condition of the Females Employed
in the Lowell Mills, pp. 21, 22. -
& Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, pp. 203, 204.
c Cowley, Handbook of Business in Lowell, 1856, p. 162.
d Quoted in the Voice of Industry, June 12, 1845.
< Voice of Industry, September 4, 1845.
CHAPTER H. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 79
times for two or three months, that her farm had cost $950, and her
aid to her relatives had not been anything like the amount stated, and
that she had never been married.0 She added:
Another fact in this remarkable woman is that she has not been a
subscriber to a newspaper, nor a patron to any library, or had a seat
at church, or a dress suitable to appear at church, in all the 19 years;
and yet she is sent out through the press as a sample of factory girls.
Now, bad as the state of mental and moral cultivation is, she is not
a fair representative of the female operatives of Lowell, or any other
place. Most of the operatives dress well, and a large proportion of
them read in their leisure time, which is very limited.
The average weekly wages of women textile factory operatives did
not change greatly until the time of the Civil War. Between 1860
and 1866 the wages of women spinners, weavers, warpers, speeders,
spoolers, etc., increased from 50 to 100 per cent.6 Retail prices,
however, meanwhile increased from a basis of 100 in 1860 to 202 in
1866.c The per cent of increase, moreover, of women's wages in
cotton mills from 1831 to 1880 has been given as only 149.d
LABOR SUPPLY.
During the early years of the factory system in this country there
was a decided scarcity, especially in New England, of labor supply.
In other parts of the country, and even at Fall River, foreign oper-
atives were early introduced, but for many years the factories work-
ing under the Lowell or Waltham system put forth systematic
efforts to attract the farmers' daughters of the surrounding country.
To do this they were obliged, not merely to offer high wages, but
also to break down the prejudice against factory labor inspired by
the tales of horror which were coming to light hi England at just
the period of the firm establishment of the factory system in this
country. One of the favorite arguments at this time against pro-
tection to American manufactures was that the factory system pro-
duced a depraved and ignorant laboring class.
To combat this idea and the resulting prejudice of farmers against
sending their daughters to the factories, the Waltham and Lowell
» Voice of Industry, April 4, 1846.
6 See Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 48H87.
c Idem, p. 261. This refers to average prices per year of 23 commodities.
d Sixteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1885,
p. 187. Other wage figures may be found in the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh,
twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth reports of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics
of Labor; in the Aldrich report on Retail Prices and Wages (Senate reports, 52d Cong.,
let sess., 1891-92); in the Tenth Census, 1880, Vol. II, Manufactures, "Report on the
factory system in the United States, " pp . 44-51 ; in the Nineteenth Annual Report of the
United States Commissioner of Labor, 1904, and in the Twelfth Census, 1900, Special
Reports: Employees and Wages. For a long discussion of the statistics of women's
wages in the textile industries, see Abbott, Women in Industry, pp. 267-300.
80 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
corporations, and others which followed the same system, adopted
a plan of paternal care over the factory girls. The general argument
was that the depravity and ignorance of the operatives was not a
necessary result of the factory system, but was due to other causes.
To prove this point a system of factory boarding houses was estab-
lished and other regulations designed to safeguard the moral char-
acter of the girls employed were adopted. Much, too, was done to
render factory labor attractive. As Mrs. Robinson has said: "Help
was too valuable to be ill treated."0
Another method of securing girls for the factories was to send out
agents to the country districts who were paid a stipulated sum per
head for hiring girls.6 As early as 1831 the Dedham (Mass.) Patriot
announced that "a valuable cargo, consisting of 50 females, was
recently imported into this State from 'Down East' by one of the
Boston packets. Twenty of this number were consigned to Mann's
factory at Franklin, and the remaining 30 were sent to Lowell and
Nashua."0 And in 1846 the Voice of Industry announced, under
the heading "Speculation," that "57 girls from Maine arrived at the
Lawrence counting room one day last week."d In the next year,
too, the Waterville Union stated that about 25 girls from the coun-
try would leave there on one morning for the Lowell factories.6
About the same time the Cabotville companies were said to have
runners out "to procure operatives, for which a premium of so
much per head is paid," and an amusing story was told of a Lowell
speculator who brought a girl from Maine with the promise that he
would send her back if she did not like it. As soon as she heard the
noise of the machinery she refused to work, and finally he was obliged
to redeem his promise/
Usually, however, no such promise was given, and the girls were
often brought from such a distance that they could not easily get
back. The Cabotville Chronicle spoke in 1846 of a "long, low, black,
wagon," which " makes regular trips to the north of the State, cruis-
ing around in Vermont and New Hampshire, with a 'commander'
whose heart must be as black as his craft, who is paid a dollar a head
for all he brings to the market, and more in proportion to the distance,
if they bring them from such a distance that they can not easily get
back. This is done by ' hoisting false colors,' and representing to the
girls that they can tend more machinery than is possible, and that the
work is so very neat, and the wages such that they can dress in silks
a Robinson, Loom and Spindle, p. 72.
& Corporations and Operatives, etc., Lowell, 1843, p. 22.
c Quoted in Poulson'e American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, November 8, 1831.
d Voice of Industry, May 29, 1846.
< Quoted in Voice of Industry, May 14, 1847.
/Voice of Industry, May 22, 1846.
CHAPTER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 81
and spend half their time in reading."0 In at least one case a girl
under 15 years of age was brought to Lowell and instructed by the
agent to give her age as over 16 or she would not be employed, on
account of the compulsory education law. 6
CHANGES IN NATIONALITY.
In the textile factories of the early years native labor was generally
employed. It is recorded that at the Beverly factory there were at
first a number of Europeans, chiefly Irish, but they were found
unsatisfactory, and in 1791 all but one of the 40 persons employed
were natives of the vicinity.6 And in Lowell in 1827 Kirk Boott
stated that " except in the print works, there are no foreigners, and
those do not exceed one-quarter part."d They were probably, more-
over, all men. As late as 1856, indeed, it was stated that two-thirda
of the factory operatives of Lowell were of American birth, and two-
thirds of the foreigners Irish.*
Twenty-three years earlier, however, it had been stated that about
one-fifth of all the factory operatives of New England were foreigners,
mainly English/ The great majority of these foreigners were in
Fall lliver and in Rhode Island,? and doubtless the proportion was
much higher among the men operatives than among the women
operatives. But about 1836 the Irish immigration began, and by
1843 Irish women began to be employed in the textile factories of New
England, at first merely as scrub women and waste pickers.* They
earned fair wages, however, and their children soon became American-
ized and took up factory work. In 1846, too, the American opera-
tives were said to have been discharged from a cotton factory in Cin-
cinnati and their places filled with Germans. i
« Quoted in the Voice of Industry, January 2, 1846. Reprinted in the Docu-
mentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. VII, p. 141. A similar charge
was made in the Voice of Industry, April 17, 1846.
& Voice of Industry, May 29, 1846.
c Rantoul, First Cotton Mill in America, Essex Institute Historical Collections,
vol. 33, p. 40.
<* Carey's Excerpta, vol. 1, p. 250.
« Cowley, Handbook of Business in Lowell, 1856, p. 158. In 1845, according to the
Rev. Henry A. Miles, "of the 6,320 female operatives in Lowell, Massachusetts fur-
nishes one-eighth; Maine, one-fourth; New Hampshire, one- third; Vermont, one-
fifth; Ireland, one-fourteenth; all other places, principally Canada, one-seventeenth."
(Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, p. 193.)
/ Testimony of a Philadelphia manufacturer before the English Factory Commis-
sion. Mechanics' Magazine and Register of Inventions and Improvements, New
York, January, 1834, Vol. Ill, p. 33.
g Part of the present city of Fall River was in Rhode Island until the readjustment
of boundary lines between the two States in 1861.
& Robinson, Loom and Spindle, p. 13.
* Voice of Industry, April 3, 1846. The Rhode Island manufacturers, it was said,
preferred foreign laborers, because they could not vote under the Rhode Island prop-
erty qualification law. (Voice of Industry, September 18, 1846. Reprinted in
Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. VII, pp. 142, 143.)
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol 9 6
82 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
By 1850 the change in nationality of the factory operatives was
marked. The minority report of the special committee of the Massa-
chusetts legislature on limitation of hours of labor a in that year spoke
of "the important change that has been rapidly taking place in the
character of the factory population within the last few years. Instead
of the female operatives being nearly all New England girls, as was
formerly the case, large numbers of them are now foreigners. The
infusion of foreigners among the operatives has been rapid, and is
going on at a constantly increasing rate." In the same year a fac-
tory girl of Waltham, replying to a speech in Congress of the Hon.
Jere Clemens, in which he described factory labor in New England as
no better than Negro slavery in the South, said that though "some
overseers are overbearing and unreasonable, * * * the greatest dissat-
isfaction, among American operatives, is caused by the introduction of
foreign laborers into manufacturing establishments." 6 Again, in 1852,
the New York Weekly Tribune quoted an article from the Windham
(Vt.) County Democrat, which was edited by a woman, in which it
was asserted that " whatever inducements or advantages it (the fac-
tory system) has left will soon disappear before the influx of foreign
hands." c And in the same year a strike in the mills of the Salisbury
Corporation and the Amesbury Flannel Mills in Massachusetts
resulted in almost a complete change of industrial population from
American to Irish.* By 1855, too, half of the Lowell operatives were
said to be Irish. e
The coming of the Irish marked the second period of the history of
the nationality of textile-mill operatives. The first period was that
of the native Americans, with a few English and Scotch, and in the
second period a few Germans came in along with the Irish. But in
general the three periods were that of the Americans, extending to
about 1840 or 1845, that of the Irish, beginning in the forties, and
that of the French Canadians, which began immediately after the
Civil War/ Recently the races of southern Europe have in part taken
the places of both the Irish and the French Canadians, but this move-
ment has only begun.
The change in nationality of cotton-factory operatives was greatly
accelerated by the Civil War, which was particularly disastrous to
that industry. In a report to the Boston Board of Trade in 1863
a Massachusetts House Documents, 153, 1850. Reprinted in Documentary History
of American Industrial Society, Vol. VIII, pp. 151-186.
& Quoted in Farley, Operative's Reply to Hon. Jere Clemens, Lowell, 1850, p. 13.
c New York Weekly Tribune, September 11, 1852.
d Eleventh Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, p. 13,
« Robertson, Few Months in America, 1855, p. 211.
/ Fenner, History of Fall River, p. 74.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 83
Edward Atkinson stated that in June and November, 1862, only
about one-half the number of spindles in New York and the New
England States were in operation, and that since that time the num-
ber had been considerably reduced.0 At Lowell nine of the great
corporations shut down their mills and " dismissed 10,000 operatives,
penniless, into the streets." "This crime, this worse than crime, this
blunder," naively remarked one historian of the city, " entailed its
own punishment. * * * When these companies resumed opera-
tions, their former skilled operatives were dispersed, and could no more
be recalled than the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel." 6
The change, indeed, was particularly marked in Lowell, which
before the war had never quite lost the reputation, at least, acquired
in the days of the Lowell Offering, and where one of the great advan-
tages of the boarding-house system had been considered to be that,
in case of interruption to business from any cause, the employees had
homes elsewhere to which they could return. But when the fac-
tories opened again it was found that the operatives had not returned
to these homes and waited ready for the call, but had been .absorbed
in other industries, such as the manufacture of woolen goods, of
shoes, c and of clothing, which thrived while the cotton manufacture
languished. As a result, there was, after the war, an actual want of
women in the factory districts, "so much so that men are now
employed to do work formerly done by women." d
Overseers in mills at Lowell, New Bedford, Salem, and elsewhere
stated to a committee on the message of the governor of Massachusetts,
who had proposed the emigration of young women to the West, that
they had scoured Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont and had
"actually imported families from Canada and Europe to meet the
demands of their mills. "d In the previous year, indeed, 100 factory
girls are said to have been brought from England at one time "upon
the order of the Lawrence cotton factories. "' Less than 10 years
later the treasurer of the Atlantic Cotton Mills at Lawrence stated
that there were employed in those mills people of eight nationalities —
American, English, Irish, Scotch, German, Italian, French Canadian,
and Portuguese. 'J/
« Atkinson, Report of the Boston Board of Trade on the Cotton Manufacture of
1862, pp. 2-4.
&Cowley, History of Lowell, second edition, 1868, pp. 60,61.
cln 1863, when many of the textile factories of Lowell were closed down, it was
said that 1,500 factory girls went from Lowell to work in the shoe factories of Lynn.
The shoe trade was brisk. (Fincher's Trades' Review, Dec. 5, 1863.)
^ Daily Evening Voice, April 7, 1865.
« Fincher's Trades' Review, August 13, 1864.
/Gray, Argument on Petition for Ten-Hour Law, February 13, 1873, p. 16.
84 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
FACTORY BOARDING HOUSES.
For many years there was a distinct difference, in the employment
of both married women and children, between factories of the Lowell
type and factories of the Fall River type. At Lowell the factory
boarding house was part of the system, while at Fall River and most
of the manufacturing towns farther south the company tenement.
and the company store worked hand in hand. At Lowell individuals
were employed and at Fall River families. Most of the Lowell com-
panies made it a rule that all operatives should live in their board-
ing houses,0 and there were separate houses for men and for women.
The boarding-house keepers were married women or widows, and
their children were generally the only young children in the mills.
It was said that the companies could not afford to board children for
their labor. This, however, applied only to companies — like those
at Lowell, Waltham, and Dover — which boarded all of their em-
ployees. At the Poignaud and Plant spinning mill in Worcester
County, which ran the first factory boarding house of which we have
record, it is stated that children, some as young even as 8 or 10
years, were employed for 12 hours a day. Board in this case was
$1.08 to $1.16 per week, including washing, and wages of adults from
$2.33 to $2.75. per week.6 But probably none of the children lived
in the factory boarding houses or received anything like these wages.
In some localities, indeed, the corporation boarding house was
merely a makeshift designed to tide over the early years of a new
manufacturing town. A Troy manufacturer wrote, for instance, in
«" General rules of the Lowell Manufacturing Company," Luther, Address to the
Workingmen, third edition, 1836, pp. 40-42. Also Lowell Offering, vol. 4, p. 45; Miles,
Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, pp. 145, 146; and "Regulations to be observed by
all persons employed in the factories of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company;"
Handbook to Lowell, 1848, pp. 42-44, reprinted in Documentary History of Ameri-
can Industrial Society, Vol. VII, pp. 137, 138. The requirement, however, that
the operatives live in the corporation boarding houses was not universal. Doctor
Bartlett stated in 1841, for instance, that out of about 900 girls employed in the Boott
mills, on the 1st of April 236 boarded outside of the corporation houses. (Bartlett,
Vindication of the Character and Condition of the Females Employed in the Lowell
Mills, p. 7.) A "Citizen of Lowell," however, replying to Doctor Bartlett, stated that
recently "the operatives are compelled to board in the corporation houses or submit to
a loss; the corporations taking the privilege of paying a part of their board to the keepers
of their boarding houses, which, of course, they make up by a corresponding reduction
of wages." (Corporations and Operatives, being an Exposition of the Condition of
Factory Operatives, and a Review of the "Vindication " of Elisha Bartlett, M. D. By
a Citizen of Lowell. Lowell, 1843, p. 8.) At Great Falls, N. H., in 1836, it was said
that, when the girls asked for an increase of wages to meet a rise in the prices of board
at private houses, the company offered to increase 10 cents per week the wages of all
who would move to the company boarding houses. (Public Ledger, October 3, 1836.)
6 Nourse, "Genesis of the power loom," Proceedings, American Antiquarian Society,
vol. 16, p. 39.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 85
1827, that though it was usually necessary at first to build such
houses, "as soon as families are brought in the help employed is gen-
erally distributed." "This is found," he added, "more satisfactory
and best; in this way the price of board is regulated by competition,
and laborers choose their associates, and the females in this distribu-
tion in families are better protected and more pleasantly situated." °
Another correspondent of White's said that at Newmarket, appar-
ently in 1835, the corporation boarding house had been entirely
abandoned, "powerful objections" having been found to it. "A
part of the girls whose parents do not live in the village are distrib-
uted as boarders with those families which are disposed to receive
them." 6
The idea of most of the companies south of Lowell, indeed, appears
to have been to employ "families." The Good Intent factory of New
Jersey, for example-, advertised in 1830 for "eight or ten female
weavers acquainted with weaving on power looms," and added:
"N. B. A family that could furnish 4 or 5 hands would be preferred." c
But at Lowell and the other towns which followed the Waltham
plan the boarding houses were part of the system by which farmers'
daughters were lured into the factories. The idea seems to have
been to make the factories resemble, as closely as possible, big board-
ing schools, in which the morals of the girls were carefully protected
To this end the boarding-house keepers were carefully selected to
obtain women "of perfectly correct moral deportment," * and rules,
not unlike those of a boarding school, were adopted. The girls
reported at the factory where they were boarding, and the keepers of
the houses were required to give an account of the number, names,
and employment of their boarders, and to report upon their general
conduct and whether or not they regularly attended "public wor-
ship."*5 No one could be taken to board in the company houses
who was not employed by the company, except by special permis-
sion. The doors of the houses were to be closed at 10 o'clock every
evening and no person was to be admitted after that hour without
a reasonable excuse. In addition, the Hamilton Manufacturing
Company, in 1848, provided that the keepers of the houses were not
to allow their boarders to have company at unseasonable hours,
a White, Memoir of Slater, p. 129.
6 Idem, p. 134.
c Mechanics' Free Press, August 7, 1830. In History of Women in Trade Unions,
Volume X of this report, p. 33, is cited an instance of a woman strike breaker in
Philadelphia in 1834 who "was willing to let her family (consisting of six) work at
the 15 per cent discount."
* Bartlett, Vindication of the Character and Condition of the Females Employed
in the Lowell Mills, p. 8.
< "Rules of the Merrimack Company," 1844, Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is,
pp. 69,70; "Rules of the Hamilton Company," Handbook to Lowell, 1848, pp. 45,46.
86 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
advised that the families of those who lived in houses, as well as the
boarders, should be vaccinated, and provided that "some suitable
chamber in the house must be reserved and appropriated for the use
of the sick, so that others may not be under the necessity of sleeping
in the same room." °
The rules of the Lowell Manufacturing Company, as early as 1836,
were practically identical with those of the Hamilton Manufacturing
Company in 1848.&
The price of board at Lowell6 until 1836 was $1.25 for women, a
higher price being always charged for men. In October, 1836, the
price for women was raised to $1.50, the extra 25 cents to be paid
half by the company and half by the employees.^ In 1840 and again
in 1842 board appears to have been reduced as a result of the depres-
sion, and in the latter year the old price of $1.25 was again estab-
lished.*
But soon afterwards prices began to rise and the boarding-house
keepers found it difficult to maintain themselves. Between 1845
and 1847, when an additional 12 J cents was added to the board/
there was vigorous agitation of the subject, in which the operatives
took the part of the boarding-house keepers. Meetings were held
and resolutions passed, 0 and considerable discussion arose, during
which Horace Greeley was led, in defending the protective tariff, to
<* Handbook to Lowell, 1848, pp. 45, 46.
& Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, pp. 40-42.
c According to some accounts all necessary laundry appears to have been included,
and it was said that " the girls can wash their lace's and muslins and other nice things
themselves." (Lowell Offering, vol. 4, p. 238.) Miss Bagley, however, stated that
the girls were obliged to wash and iron every article used by them except their mill
dresses, as well as to do all their own sewing and knitting, etc., and all after 8 o'clock
at night at the end of a hard day's work. (Voice of Industry, Jan. 16, 1846.) The
same statement was repeated in the Voice of Industry of June 12, 1846. An earlier
statement was to the effect that the boarding-house keepers washed for the girls a
certain number of pieces per week, but that, as the number was not sufficient for
cleanliness, the girls were obliged to do about half of their washing and ironing. (Cor-
porations and Operatives, Being an Exposition of the Condition of Factory Opera-
tives and a Review of the "Vindication," by Elisha Bartlett, M. D. By a Citizen
of Lowell. Lowell, 1843, p. 17.)
d Boston Transcript, October 8, 1836. Quoted from the Lowell Star.
« New York Daily Tribune, October 22, 1845. Corporations and Operatives, Being
an Exposition of the Condition of Factory Operatives, etc. By a Citizen of Lowell.
Lowell, 1843. Samuel J. Varney, printer, p. 11.
/Voice of Industry, May 28, 1847.
g Idem, September 25, 1845. At Cabotville (Springfield), Mass., the price of board
was also a subject of agitation, though in 1845, 12£ cents had been added to the board
of women and 25 cents to that of men. (Voice of Industry, Nov. 14, Dec. 19, 1845.
The proceedings of two meetings at Cabotville, from the Voice of Industry, Nov. 14,
1845, are reprinted in the Documentary History of American Industrial Society,
Vol. VII, pp. 138-140).
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 87
assert that the companies had no interest in the price of board.0
The companies, however, were in many cases accustomed to pay for
the board of the operatives out of the amount due as wages, and,
even when this was not the case, the operatives were so accustomed
to consider their wages as the difference between the amount earned
and the price of board that a rise in the latter practically necessi-
tated a rise in the former on pain of labor troubles, which the
employers dreaded. The companies, moreover, preferred to pay part
of the board rather than raise wages correspondingly.
By 1866 the price of board to the operatives at Lowell had risen
to $2.25 per week, but it was said that the companies added 50 cents,
making the price received by the boarding-house keepers for each
operative $2.75.6 In 1897 the price was still $2.25 for women in
the company boarding houses at Lowell, while in many other houses
it was $2.50. By that time it was frankly acknowledged that the
system, originally established to furnish moral guardianship for the
girls, was continued as a means of keeping down wages. "The
abandonment of the Lowell system," said one writer, " means an
increase in the price of board, and that, quite naturally, would excite
a demand for larger wages. With that demand would come the
opportunity the labor agitators have so long been looking for in this
conservatively progressive and peaceful community. "c
The rule, however, that all operatives should live in the company
houses appears to have been broken down before 1855 by the coming
of the Irish.d By 1867 it was said that in the company houses in
Lowell there was room for only three-fourths of the operatives, and
that these were crowded.6
Complaint of overcrowding, however, had been made 20 years
before. "We are told," said the second number of the "Factory
Tracts," in 1845/ "that the operatives of Lowell are the virtuous
daughters of New England. If this be true (and we believe it is
with few exceptions), is it necessary to shut them up at night, 6
in a room, 14 by 16 feet, with all the trunks and boxes necessary to
their convenience, to keep them so?" In an open letter to Hon.
o There is an interesting discussion of this subject and, in general, of the low price of
board and the resulting hardships to the boarders, in Corporations and Operatives,
Being an Exposition of the Condition of Factory Operatives, etc. By a Citizen of
Lowell. Lowell, 1843, pp. 10-13, 31-35.
& Daily Evening Voice, November 30, 1866.
c Illustrated History of Lowell and Vicinity, 1897, p. 224.
d Robertson, Few Months in America, 1855, p. 211. As early as 1836 Seth Luther
stated that at Lowell 72 Irish people were found "in one-half of a small house."
(Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, p. 13.)
« Daily Evening Voice, March 7, 1867. Testimony before Legislative Committee
on Hours of Labor.
/Quoted in Voice of Industry, November 14, 1845.
88 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
Abbott Lawrence, signed " John Allen," it was alleged not only that
6 persons were crowded into one room but that 12 or 16 were obliged
to occupy "the same hot, ill-ventilated attic."0 And the following
extract from a letter, signed "Mary," describes the boarding houses
of the Tremont Mills in 1847: " JTis quite common for us to write on
the cover of a bandbox, and sit upon a trunk, as tables or chairs in
our sleeping rooms are all out of the question, because there is no
room for such articles, as 4 or 6 occupy every room, and of course
trunks and bandboxes constitute furniture for the rooms we occupy.
A thing called a light-stand, a little more than a foot square, is
our table for the use of 6. Washstands are uncommon articles — it
has never been my lot to enjoy their use, except at my own expense." 6
It is evident that even when the old, dilapidated boarding houses of
Lowell were new and fresh, living in them was not ideal.
EDUCATION.
Before the coming of the foreigners, most of the girls in the fac-
tories of the Lowell type were fairly well educated. A writer in
the New York Tribune in 1844C stated that he had been informed
by one of the paymasters at Lowell that out of the 900 whom he paid
there were only 10 or 12 who could not write, and they were
foreigners. He added, "Most of the operatives are well educated,
and a large portion of them only work a part of the year, spending
the rest of the time in their homes in the country." The agent of
the Boott Mills in 1844 wrote that of the 816 girls employed "only
43 could not write their names legibly. Forty of these," he added,
"are supposed to be Irish, two English, and one Yankee." d In
Rhode Island, however, illiteracy had been complained of some ten
years earlier as one of the evils of the factory system. In eight mills,
all on one stream, within a distance of 2 miles, it was said that there
were 168 persons who could neither read nor write/
In some cases girls worked in the factories in the winter and taught
school in the country places in the summer, just as their brothers
went to college in the winter and earned the means for further study
by teaching in the summer. The agent of the Merrimack Mills
stated, in May, 1841, that of the females then at work in those mills
a Voice of Industry, September 18, 1846.
bldem, March 26, 1847.
cNew York Daily Tribune, March 16, 1844.
d This was repeated by Scoresby, American Factories and their Female Operatives,
p. 86. A similar statement was made in 1842 by the agent of the Merrimack Mills. (See
Report of Committee on Hours of Labor, Massachusetts House Documents, No. 50,
1845, p. 14. Reprinted in Documentary History of American Industrial Society,
Vol. VIII, p. 147.)
« Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, p. 20.
CHAPTER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 89
124 had previously taught school, while 25 or 30 had "left within
the last 30 days to engage their schools for the summer, making in
all 150 or more. I also find," he added, "lay inquiries at our board-
ing houses, that 290 of our girls attended school during the evenings
of the last winter."0 In 1845 the Rev. Henry A. Miles found that
527 of the 6,320 female operatives in Lowell had been teachers in
common schools.6 Even as late as 1868 the New York Working
Women's Protective Union found a case of a girl who, by working in
the Lowell factories during the three busy months of the year, was
said to have boarded herself during the remainder of the time while
pursuing her studies at the normal school of that city.c
With the introduction of foreign labor, however, the proportion of
illiterate women workers in the textile mills greatly increased. With
the foreigners came the family system and child labor, and the farm-
ers' daughters educated in New England schools d were replaced by
girls educated mainly in the streets and in the factories. In 1867
one woman testified before the Massachusetts legislative committee
on hours of labor, that, of the 250 girls in the room where she worked,
15 out of every 20 could not write their names. And another
woman stated that of 45 operatives in her room half could not write
their names.6
LITERARY ACTIVITY AT LOWELL.
In no other part of the country, however, was there room for the
same radical change as at Lowell, for nowhere else did the New Eng-
land girls so thoroughly color factory life with their own hopes and
ambitions. The flowers in the factory windows and the bits of
poetry or passages from the Bible pasted up over the looms to be
committed to memory were characteristic of girls attracted by the
a Report of Committee on Hours of Labor, Massachusetts House Documents, No. 50,
1845, p. 14, reprinted in Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol.
VIII, p. 147. The same facts are given in Bartlett, Vindication of the Character and
Condition of the Females Employed in the Lowell Mills, 1841, p. 12.
& Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, p. 194.
cWorkingman's Advocate, July 4, 1868.
d In 1841 Doctor Bartlett asserted that, of 2,000 Lowell girls whose ages were ascer-
tained, the average age was 23 years, while in one establishment, employing 657
young women, the exact mean age was found to be 22^ years, and the average time
they had been working in factories, 3£ years. In another establishment, a single
factory only, employing 203, the mean age was 23 years, nearly, and the average time
during which they had worked in factories, about 4£ years. (Bartlett, Vindication of
the Character and Condition of the Females Employed in the Lowell Mills, 1841, p. 12.)
The same facts were given in Scoresby, American Factories and their Female Opera-
tives, p. 53. The Rev. William Scoresby, who visited Lowell in 1844, was doubtless
influenced in his judgment of conditions there by the contrast with those in the
factory districts of England with which he was well acquainted.
« Boston Weekly Voice, March 7, 1867.
90 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
paternalistic system which made Lowell the " alma mater " of such
women as Lucy Larcom, Harriet Curtis, Harriet Farley, and Mrs.
Robinson. The period from 1840 to 1850, which saw the publication
of the Lowell Offering, has been called the " golden era" of the Lowell
factory girls. The difference, however, between factory life at
Lowell in 1845 and sixty years later seems to be quite as much a
difference in the character of the operatives as in labor conditions.
Though the Lowell Offering, moreover, was written by factory girls,0
it appears to have found a large part of its support, so far as sub-
scribers were concerned, outside of Lowell.
The Lowell Offering was not in any sense a labor paper. The
Voice of Industry, indeed, which represented the interests of labor
reform, especially the 10-hour movement, asserted that "its influence
has proved detrimental to the interests of those it professed to pro-
tect."6 And Mr. John Quincy Adams Thayer, a local labor leader,
said of the Lowell Offering: "This unfortunate publication roves
over the country, even to other lands, bearing on its deceptive bosom
a continual repetition of notes, less valuable to the reader than to
the writer, but destructive to both; leaving behind the abuses and
downward progress of the operatives, the very part which becomes
their life, liberty, and greatness to give to the world, even if they
were compelled to write the record with blood from their own veins." c
The " Citizen of Lowell," moreover, who replied to Doctor Bartlett's
Vindication of the Character and Condition of the Females Employed
in the Lowell Mills, thought that the Offering was little more than a
bait prepared by the employers to lure girls to work in the mills .d
At one time Miss Sarah G. Bagley, the leading woman labor agitator
of Lowell, entered into a somewhat acrimonious newspaper controversy
with Miss Farley, in which she asserted that articles which she had
written for the Offering complaining of factory girls7 wrongs had been
rejected and that the Offering "is and always has been under the fos-
tering care of the Lowell corporations, as a literary repository for the
mental gems of those operatives who have ability, time, and inclina-
tion to write, and the tendency of it ever has been to varnish over
the evils, wrongs, and privations of a factory life. This is undeniable,
and we wish to have the Offering stand upon its own bottom, instead
aln August, 1843, Miss Farley stated that in all more than 70 different factory
girls had already written for the Lowell Offering. (Lowell Offering, vol. 3, p. 284.)
After the publication of the first two volumes, Rev. Abel C. Thomas, pastor of the
Second Universalist Church and leader of the "Improvement Circle," in which the
magazine had originated, turned the editorship over to Miss Farley and Miss Curtis,
who were factory girls, as were, from the beginning, all the contributors to the paper.
& Voice of Industry, January 2, 1846.
c Thayer, Review of the Report of the Special Committee * * * on the Peti-
tion Relating to the Hours of Labor, Boston, 1845, p. 15.
<* Corporations and Operatives, etc., Lowell, 1843, pp. 23-28.
CHAPTER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 91
of going out as the united voice of the Lowell operatives, while it
wears the corporation lock and their apologizers hold the keys."0
Miss Farley, of course, denied that she was "a vile tool for aristo-
cratic tyrants," but lamented at the same time that she saw "the sup-
port of that class, whom she has most wished to serve, almost with-
drawn."6 Four years later she said in an editorial: "The charges of
'corporation tool, ' and like epithets, must have already been refuted
by the difficulty, visible to all who are willing to see, of even main-
taining our existence." At the same time she proposed that the
operatives should receive their copies of the Offering and transmit
their subscriptions through the agents and overseers, and offered to
allow a liberal discount in all such cases.6
The object of the Offering, indeed, was not to "point a moral," but
to "adorn a tale," and Miss Farley was undoubtedly thoroughly sin-
cere in her statement: "We do not think the employers perfect;
neither do we think the operatives so. Both parties have their faults,
and to stand between them as an umpire is no easy task. The oper-
atives would have us continually ring the changes upon the selfishness,
avarice, pride, and tyranny, of their employers. We do not believe
they possess these faults in the degree they would have us represent
them; we believe they are as just, generous, and kind as other business
men in their business transactions. Their own interest occupies
their first thought, and so we find it elsewhere * * *. We believe
also that those who are so ready to point to the beam in another's
eye should first cast out that which is in their own. What can we
think of those who wish to make the Offering a medium for their ava-
rice and ill will ? We could do nothing to regulate the price of wages
if we would; we would not if we could — at least we would not make
that a prominent subject in our pages, for we believe there are things
of even more import ance."^
For the most part the discussions of the factory system contained
hi the Offering are to be found in the editorials, the contributions con-
sisting of articles, poems, and stories descriptive of nature, of country
life, of home and its charms — evidently written by homesick girls —
and of Cinderella love stories, in which the factoiy girl marries the
« Voice of Industry, July 17, 1845. Miss Bagley also charged that the company
employed another person to take charge of Miss Farley's loom half the time while she
attended to her duties as editor of the Offering. (Voice of Industry, Sept. 25, 1845.)
According to Miss Farley's own statement, indeed, when she took the editorial posi-
tion, she left her "regular place to be what is called a 'spare hand,' * * * which
gave me leisure for what I had to do." (Robinson, Loom and Spindle, p. 149.)
& Lowell Offering, vol. 5, p. 190. See also idem., p. 264 (Nov., 1845).
cNew England Offering, Lowell (Mass.), December, 1849, p. 276. This was the
successor of the Lowell Offering.
d Lowell Offering, vol. 3, p. 284 (Aug., 1843).
92 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN TN INDUSTRY.
rich young man. But frequent references to and pathetic tales of
the ravages of consumption show the darker side.
There are, however, a few interesting descriptions of life in the
factories and boarding houses of Lowell,a and two or three other
articles which are worthy of note. Perhaps the most interesting
article, for example, from the point of view of labor reform, in the
entire Lowell Offering was published in the first volume under the
title "A new society," signed simply uTabitha." The subject is the
dream of a factory girl, in which a little boy hands her a paper which
contains an account, dated April 1, 1860, of the "Annual Meeting of
the Society for the Promotion of Industry, Virtue, and Knowledge."
The first resolution passed at this meeting was to the effect that girls
should have the same advantage in the way of education as boys.
Other resolutions were : 6
Resolved, That no member of this society shall exact more than
eight hours of labor, out of every twenty-four, of any person in his or
her employment.
Resolved, That, as the laborer is worthy of his hire, the price for
labor shall be sufficient to enable the working people to pay a prouer
attention to scientific and literary pursuits.
Resolved, That the wages of females shall be equal to the wages of
males, that they may be enabled to maintain proper independence
of character, and virtuous deportment.
The general spirit of the Lowell Offering, however, is better
expressed by articles, such as that in the second volume, on "The
dignity of labor," by the defense of the factory system given in the
form of a dialogue in the July, 1844, number,0 and by the verses,
apparently written in answer to the critics of the factory system, in
which the Lowell operatives were exhorted to
Undo what slander's might has done,
* * * and save
Your name from ignominy's grave,
by furnishing poetry and prose to the Offering.**
« For example, in the "Letters from Susan," Lowell Offering, vol. 4, pp. 145-148,
169-172, 237-240, and 257-259; in the "Second peep at factory life, " Lowell Offering,
vol. 5, pp. 97-100; in "A letter to Cousin Lucy," Lowell Offering, vol. 5, pp. 109-112;
and in "A week in the mill," Lowell Offering, vol. 5, pp. 217, 218.
& Lowell Offering, vol. 1, p. 191.
c "It is true," said the factory girl, "that too large a portion of our time is confined
to labor. But, first, let me remark that this is an objection which can not be said to
exist only in factory labor. * * * The compensation for labor is not in proportion
to the value of service rendered, but is governed by the scarcity or plenty of laborers.
* * * A factory girl's work is neither hard or complicated; she can go on with
perfect regularity in her duties, while her mind may be actively employed on any
other subject. There can be no better place for reflection, when there must be toil,
than the factory." (Lowell Offering, July, 1844, vol. 4, p. 200.)
<* Lowell Offering, vol. 2, p. 63.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 93
In the editorials, however, though it was distinctly stated that,
whatever might be "the evils connected with and growing out" of
the factory system, they were not to be remedied, " though every
sentence in our pages should be an anathema/'0 and that "with
wages, board, etc., we have nothing to do — these depend upon cir-
cumstances over which we can have no control/'6 still the concrete
problems of factory life were often discussed and suggestions made
both to the corporations and to the operatives. In his "Vale-
dictory" as editor, for example, the Reverend Thomas suggested the
need of a library in each corporation for the use of the female opera-
tives in the evening, "a better ventilation of the boarding houses,"
"diminution in the hours of mill labor, and the entire abrogation of
premiums to overseers." He further recommended the payment of
a small sum, 8 or 10 cents monthly, to a fund for the relief of the sick,
and suggested that this might be deducted by the paymaster. c Early
in her editorial career, too, Harriet Farley remarked that, in her
opinion, "it is much easier to instill a feeling of self-respect, of desire
for excellence, among a well-paid, than an ill-paid class of opera-
tives."6 The Lowell Offering even refused to indorse some of the
roseate descriptions of factory labor put in circulation about this
time. In a review of Dickens's American Notes, for instance,
Miss Farley denied that "nearly all" the Lowell girls were sub-
scribers to circulating libraries, and stated that, though the Offering
"was got up by factory operatives," "the proportion of those factory
girls who interest themselves in its support is not more than one in
fifty." She added that the average hours of work were 12 a dscy.d
Nevertheless, Harriet Farley believed that most of the evils which
were associated with the factory system, were not peculiar to it.
"We are confined," she said, "but a life of seclusion is the lot of most
New England females. We have but few amusements, but 'All
work and no play7 is the motto of this section of the Union. We
breathe a close atmosphere, but ventilation is not generally better
attended to elsewhere than in the mills. We are better and more
regularly paid than most other female operatives. Our factory life
is not often our all of life — it is but an episode in the grand drama,
and one which often has its attractions as well as its repulsions."6
And when in 1850 the Hon. Jere Clemens drew in Congress a com-
parison between the slaves of the South and the factory operatives
« Lowell Offering, vol. 2, p. 280. From the ''Valedictory" of Editor Thomas.
& Idem, vol. 3, p. 48. (Nov., 1842.)
c Idem, vol. 2, p. 380.
<* Lowell Offering, vol. 3, p. 96 (Jan., 1843).
«Idem., vol. 4, p. 262. (Sept., 1844.)
94 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
of the North, Harriet Farley wrote in reply a pamphlet defending
the factory system.0
FACTORY RULES.
It is evident that, though in response to the efforts of the manu-
facturers and especially to the offer of high wages, the factories of
New England "filled with the young, blooming, energetic and intel-
ligent of its country maidens/'6 still, in spite of the testimony of
the Lowell Offering, factory labor in the early years was not by
any means ideal even in New England. Not only were the hours
extremely long, but one of the factory regulations practically put
the " black list" into force against all operatives, men or women,
who joined in any organized resistance or even left their positions
without a reason deemed satisfactory to the company. This rule
was that employees must consider themselves engaged for a year,c
« Farley, Operative's Reply to the Hon. Jere Clemens, Lowell, 1850. The letter
to Senator Clemens from a Lowell factory girl which was published in the New York
Tribune, March 23, 1850, may also have been written by Miss Farley. The conditions
of labor of factory operatives were much used during this period as arguments for
or against the protective tariff, and a large amount of evidence was produced on
both sides of the controversy, much of it of a questionable character. Articles upon
the subject not cited in other connections are: "Condition of American factory girls,"
The New World (New York), April 29, 1843, and "Lowell," etc., New York Tribune.
(Quoted in The Loom, Washington, D. C., May 21, 1846.)
b Lowell Offering, vol. 5, p. 239 (Oct., 1845). The further statement is there made
that "the inhabitants of these places saw and recognized the worth of these girls;
they associated with them, they publicly noticed them, they married with them; if
they returned to their secluded homes they were, perhaps, thought more of rather
than looked down upon." On the other hand, Sarah G. Bagley said, in a letter to the
Voice of Industry (May 8, 1846): "Do they find admittance into the families of the
rich? Certainly not! They are 'factory girls.' No matter how virtuous or intelli-
gent or how useful an operative may be — she may be a member of the same church
with her employer and the teacher of his children in the Sabbath school, or the tract
distributer of the ward in which he lives; she may gain admittance to the sitting
room to inquire after her pupil or leave a tract; but if a party is to be given and the
aristocracy of the city is to be present, she can not gain admission; her occupation —
nay, her usefulness, excludes her." As early as 1840 Orestes Brownson, in an essay
on "The laboring classes," stated that "intermarriage between the families of the
wealthy factory owners and those of the operatives is as much an outrage on the
public sense of propriety as it was in ancient Rome between the patricians and ple-
beians— almost as much as it would be at the South between the family of a planter
and that of one of his slaves." (Boston Quarterly Review, Oct., 1840, p. 473.)
c This was not one of the Dover regulations in 1828, which provided merely for two
weeks' notice of intention to leave in order that those who had faithfully performed
their duties should be given a certificate of regular discharge at their own request.
(Mechanics' Free Press, Jan. 17, 1829.) The Cocheco Company, at Dover, in 1834
made its employees sign an agreement that they would forfeit two weeks' wages if
they left without giving two weeks' notice, that in case they were discharged for any
fault they could not consider themselves entitled to be settled with in less than two
weeks, that they would work for such wages as the company saw fit to pay, and also
that they would not "be engaged in any combination whereby the work may be
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 95
and was probably originally the result of experience with homesick,
discontented girls who left as soon as they had become really useful
in the factory. It was apparently peculiar to the Lowell system of
factory management, in which it was practically universal during
the thirties and forties. At the Schuylkill factory near Philadelphia
the rules provided only for two weeks' notice of intention to leave
on the part of persons who were not, and a month's notice on the
part of persons who were, renting tenements of the company, on
penalty of forfeiting all the wages due; in the latter case all the wages
due to any member of the family.0
The Lowell rule naturally became, with changing industrial condi-
tions, increasingly burdensome. In case of a strike, of course, all the
girls taking part were punished "by dismissal from employment and
proscription, * * * a combination existing among the capi-
talists and agents of the different companies, against the operatives,
to punisli all combinations on the part of the latter." 6 But it was not
merely labor agitators or strikers who were put upon the " black list."
Any girl who was discharged or who left the mill before the expira-
tion of the year without permission, which seems to have been
difficult to secure, was blacklisted. In one case a girl weaver, dis-
charged by an angry overseer because she left her loom to wash her
hands, and two threads broke in her absence, though this was the
first complaint against her, had her name placed upon the " black
list."0 In another case a girl who was said to have been discharged
from one mill because she refused "to do the drudgery of the room in
addition to her usual task, and for the same compensation," upon
applying at another establishment for work, was told by "the indi-
vidual to whom she made her application" that "she might go to work
impeded or the company's interest in any work injured." (The Man, March 11, 1834;
Luther, Address to the Workingmen, 3d ed., p. 36.) But in 1836 the Lowell Manu-
facturing Company stated in its rules that, "It is considered a part of the engagement
that each person remains 12 months if required, and all persons intending to leave
the employment of the company are to give two weeks' notice of their intention to
their overseer, and their engagement with the company is not considered as fulfilled
unless they comply with this regulation." (Luther, Address to the Workingmen, 3d
ed., pp. 40-42.) Other Lowell companies had in the forties, and probably earlier,
substantially the same rule, and provided that only persons who had complied with
the regulations should be entitled to an honorable discharge "which will serve as a
recommendation to any of the factories in Lowell." (Lowell Offering, vol. 4, p. 45;
Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, pp. 145, 146.) Practically the same rule
was in force in the Hamilton Manufacturing Company's factory at Lowell in 1848.
(Handbook to Lowell, 1848, pp. 42-44. Reprinted in Documentary History of Amer-
ican Industrial Society, Vol. VII, p. 136. See also Voice of Industry, Apr. 17, 1846.)
a Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, pp. 47-50.
& Workingman's Advocate, April 20, 1844. Quoted from the Boston Investigator.
c Voice of Industry, September 11, 1846. The Voice of Industry recommended
that in such cases the overseers and agents should be prosecuted for "conspiracy and
libel."
96 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAENERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
and continue if her former employers did not compel him to give her
up. She remained three months ere the pursuers found her out; but
when they did, she was compelled to leave, and is now (as far as corpo-
ration influence has to do) an outcast on the face of the earth." a In
still another case a girl who left on account of ill health was said to
have been denied pay for her work and " was sent off penniless to pay
her board and find her way to her friends."6
In 1845 and again in 1850 this rule was complained of in memorials
to the Massachusetts legislature. "The effects of this regulation,"
said the petition of 1850,c "are becoming every day more grievous,
giving to the manufacturers great power over the operatives, and
leading to oppression and wrong, forming a combination which
destroys the independence of the operative class and places them
almost absolutely within the control of the manufacturer. As an
illustration, we briefly subjoin: Mary A — - engages to work for the
M Company, in the city of Lowell. According to the ' regula-
tions' she is considered engaged for one year; but, for some good
reason, perhaps ill treatment from her overseer, she wishes to leave
and applies for a ' regular discharge/ which is refused, and her name
is immediately sent to all the other corporations as being upon the
' black list/ where, should she apply for work, she is denied, no mat-
ter .how destitute her condition." The minority report of the com-
mittee stated that names, places, and dates were cited before the
committee to show the unjust effects of this rule, but trusted to public
opinion to correct the evil.
The rule in regard to yearly employment appears to have gradually
broken down with the change in the labor supply ; but for it was sub-
stituted the rule that two weeks' notice of intention to leave should
be given or two weeks' wages be forfeited/ and the "blacklist" was
continued in force.
In 1864 Richard Trevellick complained that in several of the
"eastern cities factory girls could not obtain employment without a
certificate from the previous employer;"6 and in 1869 three girls of
the Cocheco Mills, Dover, N. H., who had drawn up a paper to be
signed by the others, in which they expressed a determination to
resist a reduction in wages, were discharged, and the other mills were
all notified of the fact/
a Voice of Industry, February 12, 1847.
& Idem, June 19, 1846.
c Massachusetts House Document 153, 1850. Reprinted in Documentary History
of American Industrial Society, Vol. VIII, pp. 151-186.
d Daily Evening Voice, November 30, 1866.
« Fincher's Trades' Review, August 13, 1864. Richard Trevellick was one of the
most prominent labor leaders of his time.
/ Workingman's Advocate, December 25, 1869,
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 97
The " premium system" furnished another ground of complaint.
This system, said the Voice of Industry,0 was merely an " induce-
ment for the overseers to urge the operatives to their utmost ability,
and sometimes beyond, to produce the most cloth at the least cost to
the corporation, or in other words, a premium to defraud, wrong,
and oppress the operatives to fill up the glutted coffers of capital."
In January, 1847, the Manchester Female Labor Reform Association
passed resolutions which seem to indicate that the system was new
there and was in use during only part of the year, for, after saying
that they would not tolerate it, they added: "If we do, we shall soon
find ourselves working all the year round under the premium sys-
tem."6 It appears that at Manchester, in January, 1847, the over-
seers and second hands of the Stark Mills gave a jubilee to the opera-
tives in celebration, apparently, of their increased earnings through
the premium system. This plan of giving overseers premiums, a
Manchester girl, writing in the Voice of Industry, likened to the saying
of a fugitive slave: "Massa gives de drivers a stent and reward if he
gets de most work done, and then massa gives us all a jubilee." c
Even Miss Farley, in an editorial in the Lowell Offering,** complained
mildly of the premium system.
One of the rules of a Dover factory in 1829 was that a fine of 12 J
cents was to be exacted from anyone who was late to work/ and the
employees of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company of that city in
1834 were obliged to sign an agreement providing, among other things,
that they would "be subject to the fines, as well as entitled to the
premiums paid by the company." f Fines for tardiness appear not to
have been a feature of the general company rules at Lowell, but were
probably imposed by the overseers of the rooms. But the Schuylkill
factory (Philadelphia) had a rule that any hand who came to work a
quarter of an hour after the mill had been started should be docked
a quarter of a day, and that any hand who was absent "without
absolute necessity" should be docked "in a sum double in amount
of the wages such hand should have earned during the time of such
absence." ff
Absences from work in Lowell were permitted only on the consent
of the overseer, and, unless there were spare hands to take their
places, only tl in cases of absolute necessity." *
o Voice of Industry, January 2, 1846.
& Idem, February 12, 1847.
c Idem, January 8, 1847.
<* Lowell Offering, vol. 5, p. 281 (December 1845).
« Mechanics' Free Press, January 17, 1$29.
/The Man, March 11, 1834. Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition,
1836, p. 36.
9 Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, pp. 49, 50.
ft Idem, pp. 40-42; Lowell Offering, vol. 4, p. 45, and Miles, Lowell as It Was and
as It Is, 1845, pp. 145, 146; Handbook to Lowell, 1848, pp. 42-44.
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol
98 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
All of these early manufacturing companies had rules providing
for the discharge of employees for immoral conduct. The Dover
Manufacturing Company in 1829 urged "a strictly moral conduct"
"to preserve the present high character of our profession and give
the enemies of domestic manufactures no cause of exultation," and
stated that "gambling, drinking, or any other debaucheries will
procure the immediate and disgraceful dismissal of the individual."0
The Lowell Manufacturing Company in 1836, too, stated that it
would not "continue to employ any person who shall be wanting in
proper respect to the females employed by the company, or who shall
smoke within the company's premises, or be guilty of inebriety or
other improper conduct."6 The Hamilton Manufacturing Company,
of Lowell, in 1848 stated that it would not employ anyone who was
either "habitually absent from public worship" or "known to be
guilty of immorality." c
Attendance at "public worship" was often required as a condition
of employment. The Dover Company in 1829 mildly "expected " that
"self-respect" would "induce every one to be as constant in attend-
ance on some place of divine worship as circumstances will permit."0
But in 1836 the Lowell Manufacturing Company stated that it would
"not employ anyone who is habitually absent from public worship
on the Sabbath."6 Other companies "required" that their employ-
ees should be "constant in attendance on public worship. "d All but
one of the companies appear to have allowed their employees to
select their own church, and this one made no objection to employees
attending other places of worship, but taxed all for the support of the
church founded by the agent.
This rule, though not strictly enforced, was a cause of complaint.
The free spirits among the girls objected to such supervision over
their conduct, especially as it had nothing to do with their mill or
boarding-house life. The expense, too, of pew rent, which varied
"from three to six dollars per annum,"* with the extra expense of
dress, was a tax which many of the girls could ill afford. It appears
that there was in Lowell at that time no place of free worship, and
Miss Farley urged the establishment of such a church/
The Dover Manufacturing Company in 1829 forbade talking while
at work, except on business, and also forbade "spirituous liquor,
smoking, or any kind of amusement" in its workshops, yards, or
factories.0 The Schuylkill factory rules, too, provided that there
a Mechanics' Free Press, January 17, 1829.
6 Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, pp. 40-42.
c Handbook to Lowell, 1848, pp. 42-44.
d Lowell Offering, vol. 4, p. 45; Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, pp.
145, 146.
« Lowell Offering, vol. 3, p. 240.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 99
should be no " smoking or spiritous liquors" in the factory, and also
forbade employees "to carry into the factory nuts, fruit, etc., books,
or papers, during the hours of work.7'0 At Lowell the spinners and
weavers were not allowed to read books or papers openly hi the
factory, but Mrs. Robinson records that as a "doffer" she read and
studied in the intervals of her work. 6 In 1846 the Waltham girls were
complaining of a rule that "any person * * * attending a
dancing school shall be immediately discharged."0
Some of the companies made provision in their rules or otherwise
for the care of the sick. As early as 1831 the employees of the
Cocheco Manufacturing Company at Dover, for instance, had for
several years consented to a deduction of 8 cents per month from
their wages for a "sick fund," which was apparently managed by
the company. In that year the fund accumulated was said to have
amounted to $1,200 or $l,500.d A provision for deducting 2 cents
each week from wages for the benefit of the sick fund was one of the
rules of the company in 1834.'
At Lowell a hospital for the factory operatives was established in
1839, where the charges were $4 a week for men and $3 a week for
women. If they were not able to pay, the corporation by which
they were employed was responsible, they in turn being held respon-
sible to the corporation/ The Hamilton Company and probably
others, in 1848, also provided for a physician to "attend once in
every month at the countingroom, to vaccinate all who may need
it, free of expense."?
In some localities, especially in the early years of the factory
system, it was the custom to lock in the operatives during working
hours, and this was the cause of a number of serious accidents in
cases of fire. In New England Seth Luther stated that "in some
establishments the windows have been nailed down, and the females
deprived of even fresh air, in order to support the 'American Sys-
tem.'"* This was the custom, too, in the factories at Ellicotts
Mills, Md., where hi 1829 it was, together with a reduction of wages,
a Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, pp. 49,50.
b Robinson, Loom and Spindle, p. 46.
c Voice of Industry, January 30, 1846.
d State Herald: The Factory People's Advocate, January 27, 1831.
« The Man, March 11, 1834. Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836,
p. 36. A similar sick fund was introduced in 1869 in one of the silk mills at Paterson,
N. J., where the proprietor "started a protective society, whereby each hand pays 2
cents per week, and this small sum thus far has been sufficient to pay full wages to
any one of the girls who were really sick and unable to work." (Workingman's Advo-
cate, Feb. 20, 1869.)
/ Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It IB, 1845, p. 207.
0 Handbook to Lowell, 1848, pp. 42-44.
* Luther, Address to the Workingmen, third edition, 1836, p. 17, footnote.
100 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
the cause of a strike at the Union factory.* As late as 1866 a night
fire at a worsted mill near Providence, which employed 600 hands
and was run day and night, brought to light the fact that the doors
and lower windows were fastened. A terrible panic ensued among
the women employees. Many were injured by jumping from upper
windows, and there was even a rumor, which was afterwards denied,
that some perished in the flames.5 A little later in the same year
a score of operatives were injured by jumping from the windows of
a burning factory at Woonsocket.0 Even more recently, too, poor
provision in case of fire has been an evil of the textile factory system.
HEALTH.
The effect of factory labor upon the health of the operatives was
early discussed and wide differences of opinion upon the subject
developed.* At its first convention in 1834 the National Trades'
Union devoted one session to "the condition and prospects of the
females engaged hi manufacturing establishments in this country."*
In the course of this discussion Mr. Douglas, of Boston, asserted that
"in the single village of Lowell, there were about 4,000 females of
various ages, now dragging out a life of slavery and wretchedness.
It is enough to make one's heart ache," said he, "to behold these
degraded females, as they pass out of the factory — to mark their wan
countenances — their woe-stricken appearance. These establishments
are the present abode of wretchedness, disease, and misery; and are
inevitably calculated to perpetuate them — if not to destroy liberty
itself."
"Mr. D.," added The Man, in brackets, "entered into a descrip-
tion of the effects of the present factory system, upon the health and
morals of the unhappy inmates and depicted, in a strong light, the
increase of disease and deformity from an excess of labor, want of
outdoor exercise and of good ah*, of the prevalence of depravity
from their exposed situation, and their want of education, having
a Free Enquirer, May 6, 1829. Copied from the Mechanics' Free Press, Philadel-
phia.
& Daily Evening Voice, February 3, 1866. Providence Daily Journal, February 3
and 5, 1866.
c Boston Weekly Voice, August 9, 1866.
d The Voice of Industry on April 17, 1846, referred to "the numbers of fair daugh-
ters of New England, who are daily dying around us, from excessive and protracted
toil in our factories." But a correspondent of the New York Tribune (April 16, 1845)
asserted that "two-thirds of the females have improved in health while employed
in the mills." The same writer, however, asserted that the hours were only 10 a day,
and added: "All New England, indeed all the North, bears on its face a tariff argu-
ment, but at Lowell it is condensed to a conviction."
«The Man, New York, September 17, 1834. Reprinted in Documentary History
of American Industrial Society, Vol. VI, p. 217-224.
CHAPTER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 101
no time or opportunity for schooling; and observed that the decrepit,
sickly, and debilitated inmates of these prison houses were marrying
and propagating a race of beings more miserable, if possible, than
themselves." He told about a New Hampshire girl who, after four
months of overwork at Lowell, went home to die. Though Mr.
Douglas's recommendation that there should be legislative regula-
tion of the hours of labor precipitated an argument against the entire
protective system, this description must be taken to represent the
opinion of the labor leaders of that day upon the subject of factory
employment.
The subject was again discussed by the National Trades' Union
in 1835 and 1836,° and in an article on 'Taper money" in the
National Laborer6 in the latter year appeared the following descrip-
tion: "The females, for want of domestic employment, must enter
the factory, where a few years marching and countermarching to
the sound of the bell, gives them such habits and weakness of frame
that will forever unfit them for the healthful employment of the
country. The thin cheeks and lank frames must for life abide the
grating sound of the power loom."
In 1846 a correspondent of the Voice of Industry, commenting
upon the stories describing Lowell as a paradise, said: c
I find the fair daughters of New England doomed to severer labor
and a more humiliating dependence than the southern slave. I find
them compelled to toil 13 nours a day, shut up in the impure air of
cotton bastiles, with scarcely time to eat their meals. I find them
crowded into corporation boarding houses, almost as thick as bees,
with scarcely any accommodations adapted to the health and com-
fort of human beings, much less to the improvement and happiness
of tender females. And I wonder not that there are but few girls
who can stand such treatment for more than four or five years,
before they have to leave the factories, with broken constitutions or
a death disease among them. It is outrageous that our sisters should
be tolled out of their beds at half past 4 o'clock in the morning, and
kept in their prisons till 7 in the evening, sacrificing youthful vigor,
health, and life in order that their oppressors may plunder from
them a few more dollars of their hard earnings.
a In 1835 a committee was appointed to inquire into the condition of factory oper-
atives, and this committee reported in 1836 that "the health of the young female, in
the majority of cases, is injured by unnatural restraint and confinement, and deprh ed
of the qualities essentially necessary in the culture and bearing of healthy children."
(National Laborer, November 12, 1836. Reprinted in Documentary History of
American Industrial Society, Vol. VI, p. 282.)
& National Laborer, May 14, 1836.
« Quoted in the Mechanics' Mirror, 1846, p. 213.
102 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
A little earlier the following poem, written by Andrew McDonald,
had appeared in the United States Journal:0
Go look at Lowell's pomp and gold
Wrung from the orphan and the old ;
See pale consumption's death-glazed eye —
The hectic cheek — and know not why.
Yes, these combine to make thy wealth
"Lord of the Loom," and glittering pelf.
Go look upon the meager frame
Of girls that know not rest — nor shame;
Go gaze upon the orphan's doom,
The fittest earthly living tomb ;
Go listen to the slavish bell,
That turns an Eden into hell.
The factory girls themselves, moreover, sometimes voiced their
complaints as well as their aspirations for a shorter working-day,
in poetry. A poem, for instance, entitled "The Early Called" and
signed "Pheney, " appeared in the Voice of Industry.6 The fol-
lowing verses show the theme and foreshadow the death scene with
which the poem ends :
It was morning, and the factory bell
Had sent forth its early call,
And many a weary one was there,
Within the dull factory wall.
And amidst the clashing noise and din
Of the ever beating loom,
Stood a fair young girl with throbbing brow,
Working her way to the tomb.
The chief causes of ill health complained of were the bad ventila-
tion of both boarding houses and factories, the cotton dust, the
hurried meals, and the long hours. One woman who testified before
the Massachusetts committee on hours of labor in 1845 stated that
there were 293 small lamps and 61 large lamps which were some-
times lighted in the morning, as well as in the evening, in the room
where she, about 130 other women, 11 men, and 12 children worked.0
In 1849 the total lack of ventilation in the mills and boarding houses
of Lowell was made the subject of a report to the American Medical
Association by Dr. Josiah Curtis. Of the mills he said: "The air
in these rooms, which ought to undergo an entire change hourly,
remains day after day, and even month after month, with only the
precarious change which open doors occasionally give. There being
no ventilation at night, the imprisoned condition of many of the
0 Quoted in Voice of Industry, November 28, 1845.
& Voice of Industry, May 7, 1847.
c Massachusetts House Document No. 50, 1845, p. 3.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 103
rooms in the morning is stifling and almost intolerable to unaccus-
tomed lungs." He complained, too, of the number, "from four to
six, and sometimes even eight," who "are confined during the night
in a single room of moderate dimensions." ° In the same year the
physician of the Lowell hospital, established by the manufacturing
corporations exclusively for the operatives, read a paper before the
Middlesex District Medical Society, in which he stated that the
records of the hospital from its organization in May, 1840, to May,
1849, showed that out of 1,627 patients, 827 had typhoid fever, a
fact which he attributed to the lack of ventilation in the cotton mills.6
These evils, however, and others, had long before been recognized
by the factory operatives themselves. In 1846 John Allen, in an
open letter to the Hon. Abbott Lawrence, wrote:
You work them so long that they have no time for daily bathing, as
a protection to their health ; you permit such short intervals of labor
for meals that there is no opportunity given them to prepare with
suitable clothing for the sudden change of temperature; * * *
you compel them to stand so long at the machinery, without any
proper exercise of the different muscles of the body, and such unnat-
ural positions, that " varicose veins/' dropsical swelling of the feet and
limbs, and "prolapsus uteri," diseases that end only with life, are not
of rare but of common occurrence.0
Another writer in the Voice of Industry in 1847 asserted that
because of the long hours few operatives could endure factory life
very long, and that consequently there were constant changes going
on in the working force which were bad for the girls and bad for the
employers, as they meant that a large portion of the work must be
done by beginners. About the same time, too, a correspondent of
the Harbinger asserted that the effect of factory labor on health
was "very deleterious," that "it required a strong and healthy
woman to work steadily for one year in the mill," that a very intel-
ligent operative "informed us that she doubted whether the girls, if
a period of years were taken, could make out much more than half
of the full time," and that "the whole system is one of slow and legal
assassination. "d
o Transactions of the American Medical Association, vol. 11, 1849, p. 517.
& Massachusetts House Document No. 153, 1850. Only about five years before the
publication of this paper Harriet Farley had written in an editorial in the Lowell
Offering, long heralded as the factory girls' paper: "We know that the rooms are
spacious and high — we know that the air is not dead and stagnant — the constant
motion of bands and drums keeps it continually changing — we know that the mills
are not too warm for comfort in winter, and that few places are cooler in the middle
of summer." (Lowell Offering, vol. 3, p. 192.)
« Voice of Industry, September 18, 1846. Even Harriet Farley, in an editorial in
the Lowell Offering, had recommended that a place for bathing should be furnished
in every boarding house. (Lowell Offering, vol. 3, p. 192.)
<* Quoted in Voice of Industry, December 11, 1846.
104 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
In 1852, moreover, the address of the Ten-Hours State Convention
stated that, according to the most accurate information obtainable,
the constitutions of the female operatives became "so much impaired
hi three or four years, on an average, that they are then obliged to
abandon the employment altogether." a
The fact that the average number of years of employment was not
more than four or five 6 was generally acknowledged. But the advo-
cates of the factory system attributed this to choice on the part of
the girls and not to ill health.
There was, indeed, considerable evidence brought forward by the
advocates of the system to prove not merely that factory labor was
not unhealthy, but in some cases that the girls were positively better
in health for the regular habits of life which it necessitated. In 1841
Doctor Bartlett cited mortality statistics which, he said, "show posi-
tively, absolutely, undeniably, a state of things wholly and irrecon-
cilably inconsistent with the existence of a feeble, deteriorated, and
unhealthy population." c He acknowledged that a certain number of
sick girls left the city to die at their homes, but said that the number
was not large. He seems, however, to have taken no account of the
fact that young people, much less liable to die than old persons or
babies, furnished a larger proportion of the population of Lowell than
of other places. d
As to the direct effect of factory employment on the health of the
operatives, Doctor Bartlett cited statistics collected by him in 1835.
Taking up first the figures for a spinning room, he said: e
a The Hours of Labor. Address of the Ten-Hours State Convention to the People
of Massachusetts, etc., 1852, p. 2.
& As the result of an inquiry made by the Rev. Henry A. Miles among the boarding-
house keepers of Lowell in 1845 it was ascertained that the average stay in Lowell of
6,786 factory girls had been about four and a half years (Miles, Lowell as It Was and
as It Is, 1845, p. 161). In the same year the report of the legislative committee on
hours of labor gave the average time of employment of 203 females employed in Boott
Mill No. 2, at Lowell, as 4.29 years, and their average age as 22.85 years. (Mass. House
Doc. No. 50, 1845.) A competent witness before the house committee of 1850 on
regulation of hours gave the average number of years of employment as three'
(Mass. House Doc. No. 153, 1850.) And again in 1867 a woman operative, testifying
before the legislative committee of that year, thought three years about the average
time women were able to stand the work. (Boston Weekly Voice, March 7, 1867.)
c Bartlett, Vindication of the Character and Condition of the Females Employed
in the Lowell Mills, 1841, p. 10. Similar figures were quoted by Miles, Lowell as
It Was and as It Is, 1845, pp. 118-120. But in 1850 the New York Evening Post,
June 8, 1850, quoting an article in the American, asserted that the Lowell statistics
proved the exact opposite, that the occupations there were unhealthy.
^This fact and its influence were brought out clearly in Corporations and Opera-
tives, Being an Exposition of the Condition of Factory Operatives, and a Review of
the "Vindication," by Elisha Bartlett, M. D., By a Citizen of Lowell, Lowell, 1843,
pp. 35-40.
« Bartlett, Vindication of the Character and Condition of the Females Employed
in the Lowell Mills, 1841, p. 20.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES.
105
The whole number of girls employed in it was 55. Their average
age was 18 years and 6 months. The average time during which they
had worked in the mills was nearly 3 years. Of these 55, 41 an-
swered that their health was as good as before, 3 that it was better,
and 1 1 that it was not as good. Of these last the overseer remarked
that 6 look well and that 5 are pale. The following is a summary of
the overseer's remarks: " Looks well," 25; "rosy," 9; "fat," 2; "fat
and looks well," 4; " looks healthy," 2; "very healthy looking," 2;
"fat and rosy," 2; "fat and pale," 3; "thin," 2; "pale," 4. The
table from a carding room of another mill gives the following results :
Whole number of girls, 22; average age, nearly 23 years; average
time of having worked in the mills, 2 years and 9 months; as well,
12; better, 8; not so well, 2. Another table made up within the last
year, gives these results: Whole number of girls, 36; average time
of having been in the mill, 23 months; health as good, 26; not as
good, 7; better, 3; remarks of overseer — healthy and tolerably
healthy looking, 31; not very healthy looking, 5.
In 1841, and again in 1845, similar statistics were collected, and
the following table, copied from Doctor Curtis' s report," shows the
results :
18
11.
18
15.
Number.
Per cent.
Number.
Per cent.
Health better
170
6 51
154
10 82
Health as good
1 563
59 87
827
58 08
Health not as good
878
33 62
443
31.10
Whole number interrogated
2,611
100.00
1,424
100.00
In spite of the showing of these statistics and of the fact that even
they did not take into account the girls who were at the time absent
because of ill health, Doctor Kimball of Lowell, Doctor Wells, the
city physician, and Doctor Bartlett all asserted that the persons who
worked in the mills were actually healthier than those who did not,6
and the Lowell correspondent of the New York Tribune asserted
that the charges made in the petition of the operatives to the legisla-
ture "of unhealthiness from the excess of labor were found to be
false," and "that the general health of the operatives was improved
a Transactions of the American Medical Association, vol. 11, 1849, p. 514. This
table was copied in Massachusetts House Document 153, 1850, Report of the Com-
mittee on Hours of Labor, where it was also shown that, according to the replies of 203
females working in the Boott Mill No. 2, Lowell, ''14.28 per cent were in improved
health, 27.09 per cent health not as good, and 58.62 per cent remained the same
after working in the mills." Bartlett, Vindication of the Character and Condition of
the Females Employed in the Lowell Mills, pp. 11, 12, also discussed the figures
above given for 1841, as did the Massachusetts Report on Hours of Labor, House
Document No. 50, 1845, p. 13. The two Massachusetts house documents are reprinted
in Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. VIII, pp. 133-186.
& For the evidence of Doctor Kimball and Doctor Wells see Massachusetts House
Document No. 50, 1845, pp. 11,12.
106 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
by the regularity of labor, diet, etc."a "The general and compara-
tive good health of the girls employed in the mills here/' said Doctor
Bartlett, "and their freedom from serious disease have long been
subjects of common remark among our most intelligent and experi-
enced physicians." This good health he attributed to regular
habits, early hours, plain and substantial food, and work which "is
sufficiently active and sufficiently light to avoid the evils arising
from the two extremes of indolence and overexertion."6 To this testi-
mony of physicians the Rev. Henry A. Miles added :c
A walk through our mills must convince one by the generally
healthy and robust appearance of the girls, that their condition is
not inferior in this respect to other working classes of their sex.
Certainly, if multitudes of them went home to sicken and die, equal
multitudes of their sisters and neighbors would not be very eager to
take the fatal stations which were deserted. The united testimony
of these girls themselves, of the matrons of their boarding houses,
and of the physicians of the city, can be reconciled with only one
conclusion, and that only the prejudiced and designing will resist.
Harriet Farley in the Lowell Offering, too, asserted that factory
labor was not unhealthy, that the physical laws "violated in the
mills, are almost equally violated throughout New England ,"d and
that in many cases in which health was lost the girl was herself to
blame. "Many also," she said, "especially seamstresses, shoe
binders, straw braiders, have been accustomed to labor, sitting in
nearly the same position, a greater number of hours than those
employed in the mill, and in an atmosphere quite as warm, confined,
and impure ; unless it is contended that the smoke of a cooking stove
is less impure than the dust of a cotton mill." She added:
A favorable circumstance in connection with factory labor is its
regularity; rising, sleeping, and eating at the same hours on each
successive day; the necessity of taking a few drafts of fresh air
in their walks to and from work ; and the lightness of the labor — for,
notwithstanding the complaints which have been lately made, the
work allotted to one is light — were it not so there would not be so
many hurrying from their country homes to get rid of milking cows,
washing floors, and other such healthy employment s.d
For much of the overwork she blamed the girls themselves, who
were too eager to earn the largest possible amount of money and to
enjoy social diversions. "We have known girls," she said, "to rise
before the first bell on a summer's morning — do, from choice, their
own chamber work — be at work in the mill, brushing, oiling, etc.,
ten minutes before 'the gate was hoisted' — stay, after 'the gate was
o New York Weekly Tribune, March 4, 1846.
& Bartlett, Vindication of the Character and Condition of the Females Employed
in the Lowell Mills, p. 13.
c Miles, Lowell as It Was and as It Is, 1845, p. 127.
& Lowell Offering, vol. 3, p. 191.
CHAPTER II. — TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 107
shut down/ till the watchmen sent them out to their breakfast — then
trot home as fast as possible — eat about five or six minutes — put on
their Highland shawl, and bonnet, and go to knitting four or five
minutes — then back to the mill, as soon as the gate is opened — and
so on through the day. Five or six evenings every week are spent at
meeting, or singing school, or something of the kind, and then when
the Sabbath conies, it is aught but a day of rest. They will attend
a morning prayer meeting at sunrise; then breakfast, and go to the
Sabbath school; then to meeting again; then to an afternoon service,
and after that to an evening meeting." She advised the girls, if they
felt their health failing, to give up some of these " amusements and
pleasures."0
Weak lungs among weavers Miss Farley attributed to " the almost
universal practice of threading their shuttles with their breath," a
practice wliich, she said, had become so common that, in some places,
shuttles were made which could be threaded in no other way.6 These
shuttles which had to be threaded with the mouth were complained
of again in 1867 by one of the women operatives who appeared before
the legislative committee on hours of labor. c
On the other hand, a correspondent of the Voice of Industry said
that all medical men must be aware of the evil effects of the long
hours of labor upon the women employed in factories. "They
know," he said, "that it is decidedly dangerous, especially to the
female about the period when the osseous system is arriving at its
full development and strength — that it produces scrofula, spinal
complaints, white swellings, pulmonary consumption, etc. * * *
They are themselves animated machines, who watch the movements
and assist the operations of a mighty material force, which toils with
an energy, ever unconscious of fatigue, a power requiring neither
food nor rest, whence the avarice of employers and the stimulus of
greater wages, working on those employed, leads to excessive exer-
tions of which disease and death are frequently the result. I think
that there is not a medical man of any standing, whose practice is
amongst factory workers, but must subscribe to the assertion here
made." d Moreover, even Harriet Farley admitted that the dust
of the cotton was "poison" to some constitutions, and warned "all
with weak and injured lungs to avoid the factories/' e
The reduction of the hours of labor, of course, effected some
improvement, for the long hours were, naturally, at a time when the
need for cleanliness and pure air were nowhere properly appre-
a Lowell Offering, vol. 3, pp. 191, 192.
& Idem, p. 215.
c Boston Weekly Voice, March 7, 1867.
d Voice of Industry, April 3, 1846.
« Lowell Offering, vol. 3, p. 191.
108 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
elated, the chief cause of complaint. In 1867 the Daily Evening
Voice0 published a letter from "a working woman," hi which she
said that thirty years before she had been a factory girl at Lowell and
had found the work easy except for the long hours. The constant
standing, she said, frequently produced varicose veins. Her testi-
mony was very similar to that of one of the women witnesses before
the' legislative committee on the ten-hour law of that year, who said
that it was not so much the nature of the work as the length of time
that broke down in a few years the constitutions of the women.6 But
in an earlier editorial in the Voice it was complained that the work
allotted to women in factories was " almost always unhealthy. "c
INTENSITY OF LABOR.
Though the hours have been decreased, the intensity of the work
has been very greatly increased. Until about 1836 a girl weaver, for
instance, tended, as a rule, only two looms,d and Mrs. Robinson says
that in the early forties girls "were obliged to tend no more looms
and frames than they could easily take care of, and they had plenty
of time to sit and rest. I have known a girl to sit idle twenty or
thirty minutes at a time." e It was customary, however, when a
girl wanted to be absent for half a day, for two or three of her friends
to tend an extra loom or frame apiece so she should not lose her
wages, f Naturally, this custom suggested to the overseers the pos-
sibility of increased productiveness by increasing the number of
looms or frames to be tended by one girl. Improvements in ma-
chinery, too, aided this movement, and by 1876 one girl tended six
and sometimes eight looms,^ while in the early nineties, when Mrs.
a Daily Evening Voice, February 23, 1867.
& Boston Weekly Voice, March 7, 1867.
c Daily Evening Voice, October 4, 1865.
<* One instance is on record, however, of a girl tending four looms in a Pawtucket
factory as early as 1830. (Workingman's Advocate, New York, June 9, 1830.)
* Robinson, Loom and Spindle, p. 71.
/Idem, p. 91.
ff Jennie Collins said in 1870 that they tended 6 or 7 looms. (The Revolution,
January 13, 1870.) The treasurer of the Atlantic Mills at Lawrence gave, in 1873,
the following statement of the increase in work: "In 1835 a girl tended 2 or 3
looms, weaving cotton goods, running 108 picks a minute, equal to 216 or 324 picks
a minute, as the aggregate result of her work upon the looms. In 1849 * * * a
girl tended 4 looms, running 120 picks each per minute, making 480 picks as the
aggregate, against 216 or 324; and in 1873 a girl now tends in the same mill 4 or 5
looms, running 155 picks each per minute, equal to 620 or 775 aggregate in her charge,
being threefold, nearly, what it was in 1835, and not quite but nearly double what
it was in 1849 — that is, in weaving. Again, in 1849 a girl in the Atlantic Mills tended
4 sides warp spinning (a side is half of a spinning frame of 128 spindles), making 256
spindles. Some girls tended 6 sides, which make 384 spindles. In 1873 a girl tends
8 sides (a half of 176), making 704, or 10 sides, making 880. A girl now tends more
than double the number of warp spindles that she tended in the year 1849. Again,
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. 109
Robinson revisited the factory where she had worked, she found that
the girls were obliged to tend so many looms and frames that they
were " always on the jump and had no time to think." °
The first effort to increase the number of looms operated by one
woman of which we have distinct record was the occasion of a strike
and the second was at the time of a strike. The girls in the Ames-
bury mills had a "flare-up" in March, 1836, because they were told
they must tend in future two looms instead of one, without any
increase in wages.6 They were doubtless woolen weavers. Cotton
weavers probably tended two looms almost from the beginning. A
little later in the same year the women weavers in a factory at
Norristown, Pa., who were on strike against a reduction of wages,
were offered " an additional loom, that they may make up, by in-
creased labor, what they lose in prices."6 The offer was condemned,
however, by the strikers. In 1869 the same offer was made by the
Dover company to its striking employees, but this time the increase
was to be from six or seven to eight looms. d
In 1844 two looms appear to have been the " allotment," but girls
often tended three or four.6 Nevertheless, in 1846, Miss Bagley,
disputing the statement that the girls were required to exert only a
small amount of muscular strength, speaks of the operatives who
were " required to lend four looms." f Another writer in the Voice
of Industry in the same year remarked: " It is a subject of comment
and general complaint among the operatives that while they tend
three or four looms, where they used to tend but two, making nearly
twice the number of yards of cloth, the pay is not increased to them,
while the increase to the owners is very great. "0 Again, in the fall,
a writer warned the operatives against taking a third loom, saying
that the wages will be reduced "and you will be obliged to work
harder, and perhaps take the fourth loom (as was tried by one cor-
poration in this city) to make the same wages that you now do with
in 1849- a girl tended 8 cards, 2 railway heads, and 6 deliveries of drawings. In 1873
a girl tends 63 cards, 7 railway heads instead of 2, and 18 deliveries of drawings instead
of 6. Again, in 1849 one girl tended 2 speeders of 20 spindles each, and 2 sides of a
stretcher, 24 spindles, making 48 spindles. In 1873 one girl tends 2 speeders of 34
spindles, making 68 spindles, 2 speeders of 54 spindles, making 108 spindles, and 2
speeders of 72 each, making 144 spindles— being from two to three times as many
spindles as she did in 1849." (Gray, Argument on Petition for Ten-Hour Law, 1873,
pp. 21, 22.)
a Robinson, Loom and Spindle, p. 205.
& Boston Evening Transcript, March 25, 1836.
c National Laborer, October 22, 1836.
<* The Revolution, January 13, 1870.
« Lowell Offering, vol. 4, p. 169.
/ Voice of Industry, January 23, 1846.
0 Idem, March 13, 1846.
110 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
two."a The reference is apparently to the Massachusetts corpora-
tion which had attempted the preceding March to have each weaver
tend four looms, at the same time reducing the wages ' ' 1 cent on a
piece." The weavers promptly held a meeting and resolved that they
would not tend the fourth loom except at "the same pay per piece
as on three."6 They apparently won their point, and the quotation
above would seem to indicate that the four-loom system was not
introduced at that time.
But in 1847 we find the Washington Manufacturing Company of
New Jersey, with mills near Philadelphia, advertising in Lowell for
"30 good female weavers" who "can make $1 a day on four looms;
board at the rate of $1.42 per week." This company even offered to
pay the traveling expenses of all operatives, without later deduction
from wages. c In the same year a magazine writer stated that at
the Ponagansett Mill, near Narragansett Bay, a weaver tended two,
three, or four looms, but that, if the spinning had been well done,
they did not occupy all her time. "The remainder she will spend
according to her taste; either in solitary thought, in chatting with
her associates, or hi sitting down by her looms with a book, or with
knitting or needlework in her hands."d
The effect upon wages of the increase in the number of looms
tended by one weaver is shown in a letter by "a Lowell factory
girl," which appeared in a Boston paper of November 9, 1844. e
She said :
In May, 1842, the last month before the reduction of wages, I
tended two looms, running at the rate of 140 beats of the lathe per
minute. In twenty-four days I earned $14.52. In the next month,
June, when speed and prices had both been reduced, I tended four
looms at a speed of 100, and earned in 24 days $13.52, and I cer-
tainly, after the first few days, had an easier task than with two
looms at the high speed. I increased my earnings every month a
little, by the gradual increase of the speed, as I grew accustomed to
it. In January, 1843, the speed was raised to about 118 and the
price reduced still lower. I earned in that month, in 24 days on
three looms, $14.60, and my work was in no degree harder. The
speed was raised just as we could bear it, and often, almost always,
at our own request, because with the increase of speed our pay
increased. In June, 1843, I still tended three looms, and in 24
days earned $15.40, and in June, 1844, feeling able to tend four looms
at a speed of about 120, I received $16.92 (equal to £3 10s. 6d.) in
payment for 24 days' work. I affirm that I have not in any of
these, or other months, overworked myself. I have kept gaining in
o Noice of Industry, September 11, 1846.
b Idem, May 15, 1846. Reprinted in Documentary History of American Industrial
Society, Vol. VIII, p. 231.
« Voice of Industry, June 25, 1847.
d Knickerbocker Magazine, December, 1847, vol. 30, p. 511.
« Scoresby, American Factories and Their Female Operatives, pp. 30, 31.
CHAPTER II. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. Ill
ability and skill, and as fast as I did so I was allowed to make more
and more money, by the accommodation of the speed of the looms
to my capacity. I am by no means the best weaver in the room
where I work, though perhaps better than the average. I believe I
have given no exaggerated picture of what has been the true average
of girls. The other departments I suppose to have fared much as
we in the weaving rooms.
This increase in the intensity of work, coming before any decrease
in hours and accompanied by a decrease in the piece rate of wages,
may have been in part the cause of the strong labor movement
among the factory operatives of that day. Certain it is that no
succeeding increase in the amount of machinery to be tended by one
girl roused the same protest as this first increase from two to four
looms.
The movement, however, toward increased strain and more con-
centrated attention in textile factory work progressed. In 1869
Jennie Collins, arguing for the 8-hour day, as Sarah G. Bagley a
quarter of a century before had argued for the 10-hour day, said at
a meeting of the New England Labor Reform League Convention:
I know what it is to stand up all day in a factory, and keep pace
with the belts, and drums, and cylinders, and other parts of the
machinery. Flesh and blood, no matter how worn-out and used up,
must keep up with the great strength of steam. And I have seen
these girls stand watching the clock, and when it struck the hour of
noon, they would hurry down long flights of stairs, rush to their
boarding houses, eat their dinners — or gobble them down — and be
back again, up in the top story of the mill, within a quarter of an
hour from the time they left.a
It is evident, not only that no "golden era" ever really existed in
the textile factories of this country, but that conditions of labor
have, in some respects, at least as regards hours, improved since the
days of the Lowell Offering. If with this improvement has come a
gradual deterioration of factory districts and of factory population,
the one legislative gain should not be overlooked. And it is interest-
ing to observe that, while the famous Lowell Offering was in its day
read by "literary folk" and is now only a historical curiosity, the
movement which the now obscure Voice of Industry championed,
apparently to a wide circle of factory operatives, has been in a con-
siderable measure successful and is in full vigor to-day.
0 American Workman, June 12, 1869.
CHAPTER III.
CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES.
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol 9 8 113
CHAPTER III.
CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HISTORY.
In the making of clothing a both men and women have always had
their part. Men have been tailors, making garments for their own
sex, and, in the days when hand labor and the artisan system pre-
vailed, men made boots and shoes, gloves, and many other heavy
articles. In the early days of this country, however, women were
employed probably to a considerably greater extent than in England
in the manufacture of clothing. The men were needed for heavier
work, and whatever tasks could possibly be performed by women
were left to them. Nevertheless, men were almost exclusively
employed in colonial days in the making of boots and shoes, of leather
gloves, and of hats. As tailors, too, they had their place, even if that
place was limited, owing to the comparatively small demand for
tailored clothing.
In most of the trades included under the general term " clothing"
the sewing machine has been, from the technical point of view, the
great revolutionary force. It is the sewing machine and artificial
power which have driven the clothing industries from the home to the
shop, and, in some branches, to the factory. But, from the point of
view of woman's work, the sewing machine is not a reason for employ-
ment, but merely determines conditions of employment. Sewing,
whether by hand or by machine, has always been done by women.
In some cases, it is true, machines have enabled women to sew on
heavier materials than they could manage by hand, but, in general,
machinery in the clothing trades has merely done, to a lesser degree,
what machinery did in the textile trades — transferred the woman
worker from the home to the factory. That the transfer has been
less complete has been due primarily to the comparative simplicity
and inexpensiveness of the machines.
In the clothing trades, however, there has entered in another ele-
ment which is of comparatively slight importance in the textile in-
dustries ; that is, a redistribution of work through division of labor.
Division of labor, of course, exists in the textile industries, but the
a Under the term "clothing" as here employed are included all articles used for
personal protection or adornment, and even umbrellas, parasols, canes, and pocket-
books.
115
116 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
processes of weaving and spinning have never been split up into
minute divisions, each division requiring a separate operative who
does only that one thing. A piece of cloth has always been spun by
one operative and woven by another, but a pair of shoes, which was
formerly made by a single shoemaker, now requires about a hundred
different operations, in some establishments each performed by a
different person. This division of labor has gone hand in hand with
the development of the wholesale trade and has been in the
clothing industries what machinery was in the textile industries,
the determining factor in the employment of the sexes. Machinery,
it is true, has played its part, but it has been machinery accompanied
by division of labor, which it made profitable.
Taking the clothing trades as a whole, doubtless owing to this
division of labor, which has enabled women to perform part of the
work formerly performed by men, the proportion of women workers
has increased. a This increase is especially evident in the manufacture
of boots and shoes, which, however, within recent years has fluc-
tuated most decidedly in the relative employment of men and women,
the proportion of women sinking in 1870 to less than half the figure
for 1850.6 In this industry, however, the statistics which are avail-
able are most unsatisfactory, for the great division of labor which pro-
duced the woman shoe binder occurred at the end of the eighteenth
and beginning of the nineteenth century. The boot and shoe indus-
try is the farthest advanced industrially of all the sewing trades. The
glove industry follows and farther behind come the other sewing
trades, in most of which the division of labor, except for the simple
division into cutting and making, has been effected since the intro-
duction of the sewing-machine in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Another difference between the clothing and the textile industries
is the persistence in the former of home work and, in a lesser degree,
of custom work. Even in the manufacture of gloves, which is rapidly
following in the footsteps of the boot and shoe industry, a large num-
ber of home workers have always been and still are employed. And
in the manufacture of ready-made garments the factory system has
only recently made headway. Instead has developed the miserable
half-way station of the " sweating system." Home work and the
small-shop system have developed, in some of the clothing industries,
peculiarly distressing conditions of labor which have borne always
with crushing weight upon the women workers. That these condi-
o See Table XI, p. 2«3. It has decreased, however, in a surprising number and
variety of clothing industries, including "clothing, men's," "clothing, women's,
dressmaking," "clothing, women's, factory product," "hats and caps, not including
wool hats," "millinery and lace goods," "shirts," "buttons," " umbrellas and canes,"
and "gloves and mittens."
ft In 1850, however, women and girls were both included, and in 1870 only women.
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 117
tions do not by any means constitute a new problem, and are not
merely an outgrowth of immigration with which they are now gener-
ally associated, appears definitely in studying the history of the
garment trades.
Piece payment has always been almost the universal method of
compensation in the garment trades, but in some branches it has been
complicated by the contract, subcontract, and team systems, which
haVe themselves developed new problems and evils. Moreover, the
greater power of the individual over the output, due to her greater
control over the machinery, has led to problems of overstrain with
which nothing in the textile industries can compare.
The difficulties of women workers in the clothing trades have been
further intensified by the fact that in most occupations little skill is
required, and that of a kind generally possessed by women. Skilled
dressmakers or milliners have always been able to command good
prices for their work,a and in general, where skill or taste are required
in the manufacture of clothing, they have been rewarded. But the
great demand has been for women who could merely handle a needle
or run a sewing machine, and the wages and hours in this work have
been such that the acquisition of skill or tasto have been practically
impossible to the women who have once entered the treadmill.
Apprenticeship, in the sewing trades at least, has always been a farce.
As early as 1848 it was said that apprentices to the dressmaking
business in New York were kept sewing and learning nothing until
the very day before their apprenticeship expired, when a few hours
were spent in giving them some general directions about cutting a
dress, and they were discharged, "there being no room for journey-
women on wages in an establishment where all the work is done by
apprentices for nothing.7'6 Similar complaints have been common
since that time.
These five elements, home work, the "sweating system," the con-
tract and subcontract systems increasing the number of middlemen
between producer and consumer, the exaggerated overstrain due to
piece payment, and the fact that the clothing trades have served as
the general dumping ground of the unskilled, inefficient, and casual
women workers, have produced from the very beginning of the whole-
sale clothing manufacture in this country a condition of deplorable
industrial chaos. The boot and shoe trade, it is true, early escaped
through the factory system from this chaotic condition; the glove
trade is rapidly following; in the manufacture of collars and cuffs
some degree of order was comparatively early attained; and in the
a In 1830 Mathew Carey spoke of milliners and mantua makers as well paid for their
labor. (Carey's Miscellaneous Pamphlets, No. 12, To the Editor of the New York
Daily Sentinel.)
& New York Daily Tribune, Aug. 12, 1848.
118 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
manufacture of buttons, needles and pins, hooks and eyes, and a
few other articles the machinery has been such as to necessitate
organization; but in most of the other clothing industries industrial
chaos and cutthroat competition among working women prevailed
throughout the nineteenth century, and organization under condi-
tions as favorable as those in the textile industries has only recently
begun to be established.
To alleviate the distress of the women employed in the clothing
industries, three remedies have been frequently tried: organization,
cooperation, and charity. The first of these remedies is the subject
of a special volume of this report.0 Cooperation, usually organized
and supported by philanthropists, has frequently been tried. As
early as 1836 the New York Sun& suggested that the seamstresses
should "organize themselves into societies and set up for them-
selves, purchasing materials and making garments for sale upon
their own account." Some thirty years later a number of coopera-
tive associations were organized to aid the struggling sewing women, c
and twenty years afterwards some Chicago girls, members of the
Knights of Labor, who were locked out by their employers for taking
part in the Labor Day parade, formed upon their own initiative a
company which they called "Our Girls' Cooperative Clothing Manu-
facturing Company. "d Other instances of philanthropic or inde-
pendent cooperation might be cited, but such enterprises have never
been successful enough to make cooperation important in this con-
nection.
Usually, however, philanthropic efforts to aid the women workers
of the clothing trades have taken the form of societies organized for
the purpose of furnishing work. At first these societies paid the pre-
vailing rate of wages, and this policy has always been followed by
some. The fact, however, that the prevailing rate was not a living
wage, early brought forth criticism of the policy. In 1836 the com-
mittee on female labor of the National Trades' Union spoke scorn-
fully of the members of " Dorcas Societies" who " subscribe them-
selves ' charitable ladies,' for giving a woman 12 J cents for making a
shirt, equalled as they are in ' charity ' only by the United States
clothing department in the city of Philadelphia, which has ground
the seamstress down to the above sum, 12 J cents, for the same article."6
« History of Women in Trade Unions, Volume X of this report.
& Quoted in the Public Ledger, Philadelphia, March 26, 1836. The Public Ledger
later itself urged the same measure. (Public Ledger, Sept. 16, 1836.)
«For example, the "Ladies Cooperative Tailoring Association of Baltimore," and
the "Female Cooperative and Beneficial Association of Woburn, Mass." (Daily
Evening Voice, Mar. 21, June 23, 1865; Fincher's Trades' Review, Sept. 9, 1865,
Apr. 28, 1866. These were both labor papers.)
<* Journal of United Labor, November 25, 1886.
« National Laborer, November 12, 1836. Reprinted in Documentary History of
American Industrial Society, Vol. VI, p. 288.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 119
The Provident Society of Philadelphia was frequently criticised
for its wage scale, a as was the Boston House of Industry. The
same evil has many times since been the cause of complaint, as, for
example, in 1887, when a writer in the Industrial Leader asserted that
he had found inmates of several charitable institutions in New York
crocheting ladies shawls for $3 per dozen, or at 25 cents each, by
which they could earn 12£ cents a day, it taking 2 days to make one.6
As early as 1830, however, efforts were made to establish in New
York,c Philadelphia/ and other cities societies for the purpose of
insuring "a reasonable compensation for the labor of the industrious
female/' and societies which paid wages above the average were
established soon afterwards in Philadelphia and Baltimore. And in
1851 there was founded in New York the " Shirt Sewers' Union"
which is said to have paid " satisfactory (far different from factory)
prices to all in its employ."6 Various " protective associations," too,
sprang up in different parts of the country between 1845 and about
1870, and attempted to establish a scale of "fair prices." The Bos-
ton Needle Women's Friend Society held its twenty-second annual
meeting in 1869/ Similar organizations have been common within
more recent years, but little has been accomplished.
HAND WORK IN THE GARMENT TRADES.
The history of the garment trades may be divided into two great
periods, that of hand work and that of the machine. The first
period, however, may itself be divided into two stages, that of handi-
craft or custom work and that of wholesale manufacture under the
wage or piece-price system. These two stages of the first period are
mentioned in the chronological order of their development, but the
first, especially in custom work, has survived, not merely through the
stage of wholesale manufacture, but also through the entire second
period of machine work. During the colonial period nearly all of the
clothing which was not made at home for family use appears to have
been made to order or to have been sold by the maker or a member
of her family.
« The National Gazette, however, which may be characterized by the fact that it
bitterly opposed the establishment of a public school system, complained in 1835 that
'there was a great scarcity of white domestics in Philadelphia because they had taken
to sewing, having been induced to leave their places by the opportunities for employ-
ment furnished by the Provident Society. (National Gazette, Philadelphia, July 6,
1835.)
& Industrial Leader, July 9, 1887.
c Mechanics' Press, Utica, June 5, 1830. Quoted from the New York Evening
Journal.
<* Mechanics' Free Press, May 1, 1830.
« New York Daily Tribune, June 8, 1853.
/ The Revolution, April 29, 1869.
120 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNEKS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE WHOLESALE TRADE.
In the clothing trades, unlike the textile industries, it was not
machinery, but the development of the " ready-made" or wholesale
business which made the women clothing workers wage-earners.
Early in the nineteenth century, if not before, there began to be
manufactured cheap ready-made clothing for soldiers and sailors
and also "for the South." The first ready-made clothing of which
we have record was "shirts for the Indians" which were made by at
least one woman at Northfield, Mass., about 1725 for 8d. each, and
"men's breeches" which were made for Is. 6d. a pair.a But it was
not until much later, when northern capital found profitable invest-
ment in furnishing clothing for southern slaves, that the business
became of consequence. From the beginning it was centered in the
cities, especially in New York and Philadelphia, and later in Boston. b
The heavy duty imposed by the tariff of 1816 (30 per cent) on
ready-made clothing, and the even heavier duty of 1828 (50 per cent),
greatly aided the development of the industry, and by 1831 there
were 300 men, 100 children, and 1,300 women employed in tailor
shops in Boston alone. c About the same time men's ready-made
medium-grade clothing began to be manufactured in New York, and
women workers commenced to encroach upon the domain of the
tailor — the only part of the garment manufacture which was tradi-
tionally man's field of labor. Even the trade of the tailor, however,
at the time of a journeyman tailors' strike in New York in 1819 to
prevent the employment of women, was said utwo centuries ago" to
have been "wholly performed by women," and it was added that "the
interference of the males in the business gave rise to the odium that
a tailor was only the ninth part of a man." d
References to the entrance of women into the tailoring business
are frequent after 1833 when, the New York tailors having gone on
strike, the Journal of Commerce, always a consistent employers'
organ, thought it would be an easy matter to defeat them since
''women may well do half which the men have been accustomed to
do." e Again, in 1835, the United States Telegraph, commenting
upon the unremunerative labor of women, suggested that they ' ' take
from the men the tailoring business, which is much better adapted to
the females."0 In the same year, too, the master tailors of Cincin-
« Temple and Sheldon's History of Northfield, p. 163.
& An advertisement appeared in a Boston paper in 1836 to the effect that "200
females can have employment on low-priced work, by applying at J. Sleeper's navy
work shop, rear No. 6 Congress square, up stairs." (Daily Centinel and Gazette,
Sept. 23, 1836.)
c Documents Relative to the Manufacturers of the United States, Executive Docu-
ments, first session, Twenty-second Congress, vol. 1, p. 465.
d Columbian Centinel, Boston, April 24, 1819.
<New York Journal of Commerce, October 12, 1833.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 121
nati, Louisville, and St. Louis complained that the journeymen
refused to work for those who employed women.6 And during the
trial of the journeymen tailors' conspiracy case in New York in 1836
it was charged that this union had on one occasion struck against an
employer because he had employed a woman.0
In the New England States, in 1836, tailoring was said to be "in a
certain measure governed by females," d and in 1849, at the time of
a tailors' strike in Boston, it was stated that wages had been reduced
57 per cent during the past five years, and that master tailors had
further heightened the competition by employing women on many
parts of the work hitherto performed by men.e As late, moreover,
as 1864, the Merchant Tailors' Association of St. Louis denounced
the society of journeymen tailors for having interfered with their
employing women and thereby deprived " honest and worthy seam-
stresses of employment." The journeymen on this occasion, how-
ever, replied by saying that "the only action the jours take in the
matter is that when a boss gives work to a woman he shall pay her
the full price." But, they added, "we will resist by all lawful means
in our power the efforts of our employers to introduce female appren-
tices by encouraging them to leave service and other employments
more congenial to girls than mixing with men in a workshop from
morning to night/
It was originally, without doubt, the ready-made clothing business
which made it possible and profitable to employ tailoresses, but later
the division of labor brought them into certain kinds of custom work.
Under the general term "garment workers," however, are included
the makers of men's, women's, and children's clothing, shirts, etc. —
tailoresses, seamstresses, machine operators, and dressmakers. And,
with the single exception of men's clothes, which \\ere the first of the
ready-made garments, all of these articles were originally made
mainly by women.
The manufacture of ready-made clothing had become by 1835 a
thriving business, and during this year and the next, according to a
call issued in 1844 for a national convention of tailors, "every country
village within 100 miles of New York became as busy as a beehive
with tailors and tailoresses," and enough was produced during those
two years to last through 1837, 1838, and 1839.0 The panic of 1837,
a United States Telegraph, July 4, 1835.
& Commercial Bulletin and Missouri Literary Register, St. Louis, December 18, 1835.
c New York American, June 15, 1836.
<* National Laborer, November 12, 1836. " Report of committee on female labor
of the National Trades 'Union." Reprinted in Documentary History of American
Industrial Society, Vol. VI, p. 285.
« New York Weekly Tribune, August 22, 1849.
/ Fincher's Trades' Review, April 16, 1864. This was a labor paper.
g Workingman's Advocate, July 13, 1844.
122 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
indeed, combined with a tariff which, according to the New York
Tribune, made possible "an active foreign competition, which filled
the southern market with imported clothing, and so superseded that
which had formerly been made up in and about New York," was
disastrous to the business and threw out of employment a large num-
ber of women, causing an immense amount of suffering.0 The tariff
of 1842, however, is said to have in a great measure restored the
southern clothing trade to New York, and by so doing to have raised
the wages of seamstresses.6
In general, though the ready-made-clothing industry was an
important business before the invention of the sewing machine, it
was practically confined to men's and boys' clothing of the cheaper
grades and to shirts, and the quantities manufactured were neces-
sarily small, the work being all done by hand. As late as 1840 it was
said that many women were employed in the tailoring business "but
chiefly upon particular articles, and for the southern markets.7' c Army
clothing, too, was early an important branch of the ready-made busi-
ness, and in 1839 it was said that 800 women were engaged in this
kind of work in Philadelphia/
It is probable, though there are practically no statistics upon the
subject, that during this period women retained all their former work,
the lighter forms of sewing, and at the same time slowly encroached
upon the domain of the man tailor. The hopelessly imperfect manu-
facturing census of 1820 gave under the heading "clothing," only 40
men, 6 women, and 13 "boys and girls/' and under the heading "gar-
ments, men's," 16 men, 5 "boys and girls" and no women.6 The
makers of men's garments, at least, were probably tailors. In 1850,
63.7 per cent, and in 1860, 63.6 per cent of all the employees engaged
in the manufacture of men's clothing (given as " clothiers and tailors "
hi 1850), were females/ Before the next census period, the use of the
sewing machine had become general, and the second great period of
the garment-making industry, the machine period, was fairly under
way.
« The Philadelphia Public Ledger, September 21, 1837, attributed the suffering
among seamstresses in cities to "that vicious system of wholesale dealing, which during
its expansion, collects women by thousands from all parts of the country, and during
its contraction, suddenly turns them out to starve."
& New York Daily Tribune, March 27, 1845.
c British Mechanics' and Laborers' Handbook, etc., to the United States, 1840, p. 219.
d Public Ledger, October 22, 1839. It was complained, moreover, that these women
were paid in depreciated currency, thereby losing 10 per cent of their wages.
« American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223.
/ See Table XI, p. 253.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 123
MATHEW CABBY'S CRUSADE AGAINST LOW WAGES.
The history of this period, like that of the better-known period of
the machine, is a tale of long hours, low wages, and exploitation.
The "sweating system," indeed, in the broad sense of that term, was
established hi this country at the very beginning of the ready-made
garment business and has developed simultaneously with that
business. The contract system established stages and degrees of
sweating, but a study of the sweating system would have to extend
back at least as far as the beginning, in 1828, of Mathew Carey's
agitation in the interests of that " numerous and very interesting
portion of our population," the working women, of whom he estimated
that there were in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Baltimore
between 18,000 and 20,000.° At least 12,000 of these, he said, could
not earn, by constant employment for 16 hours out of the 24, more
than $1.25 per week.6
The disclosures made by Mathew Carey during the course of his
investigation and agitation in behalf of the sewing women seem,
though quaintly worded, very modern in their substance. It was
set forth, for example, in the resolutions passed at a meeting in
Philadelphia on February 21, 1829, that "it requires great expertness,
unceasing industry from sunrise till 10 or 11 o'clock at night, con-
stant employment (which very few of them have") without any inter-
ruption whatever from sickness, or attention to their families, to earn
a dollar and a half per week, and, in many cases, a half or a third
of their time is expended in attending their children, and no small
portion in traveling 8, 10, 12, or 14 squares for work, and as many to
take it back when finished; and, as, moreover, there are few of them
who are fully employed, they are thankful for two, three, or four shirts
at a time at 12J cents each."c
The committee appointed at this meeting reported : d
That they are convinced, from a careful examination of the sub-
ject, that the wages paid to seamstresses who work in their own
apartments — to spoolers, to spinners, to folders of printed books —
and in many cases to those who take in washing, are utterly inade-
quate to their support, even if fully employed, particularly if they have
children unable to aid them in their industry, as is often the case;
whereas the work is so precarious that they are often unemployed—
sometimes for a whole week together, and very frequently one or
two days in each week. In many cases no small portion of their time
a Mathew Carey, ''To the Ladies who have undertaken to establish a House of
Industry in New York," and "To the Editor of the New York Daily Sentinel," Mis-
cellaneous Pamphlets, Philadelphia, 1831.
& Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 13, pp. 138-142. Dated July 1, 1830.
c Free Trade Advocate, Philadelphia, March 14, 1829.
& Carey, Miscellaneous Essays, pp. 266-272.
124 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
is spent in seeking and waiting for work, and in taking it home when
done.a
A complete remedy for these conditions the committee considered
as " perhaps impracticable," but some mitigation was hoped for.
The Committee said:
The mitigation must wholly depend on the humanity and the
sense of justice of those by whom they are employed, who, for the
honor of human nature, it is to be supposed, have not been aware
of the fact, that the wages they have been paying were inadequate
to the purchase of food, raiment, and lodging; and who, now that
the real state of the case is made manifest, will probably, as they
certainly ought to, increase those wages.6
"Those wealthy ladies who employ seamstresses or washerwomen J;
were especially urged to give such wages as would not only yield
"a present support" but " pro vision for times of sickness or scarcity
of employment." Another important remedy suggested was, "to
increase as far as possible the diversity of female employments, by
which that competition which has produced the pernicious reduction
of wages, would be diminished." Finally, it was recommended that
there should be established "a society for bettering the condition of
the poor."0
A year later, however, the New York Sentinel stated that no means
had been discovered or adopted to mitigate the distress, and that
conditions were as bad in New York as hi Philadelphia. Many
women in New York, said the Sentinel, were employed ''in making
duck pantaloons for a readymade clothes store for 4 cents a pair,
and cotton shirts for 7 cents a piece. These women stated," said
the Sentinel, "that, with the most unremitting industry, they could
sew no more than three pair of pantaloons, or one shirt in a day;
and that they were obliged to labor for this paltry pittance, or be
entirely without employment. The storekeeper, for whom they
wrought, could procure the services of emigrants wretchedly poor,
or get his work done at the almshouse, and would give no higher
wages. In consequence, the price of such work was reduced to
a Spoolers and spinners are here mentioned as among the women whose wages were
inadequate. Earlier, however, Matthew Carey had spoken of spinners and weavers
in factories as well paid. (Carey, Miscellaneous Pamphlets, No. 12, "To the Editor
of the New York Daily Sentinel," 1831, p. 5.) He is here, however, probably refer-
ring to home work, which appears to have survived in Philadelphia even to 1833, and
in which the women workers were in direct competition with the factories.
& This remedy was spoken of by Frances Wright as "the last resource of suffering
poverty and oppressed industry" — "the forlorn hope presented in the touching docu-
ment signed by Mathew Carey and his fellow laborers." (Frances Wright, Lecture
on Existing Evils and Their Remedy, pp. 8, 9 and p. 13.)
c This recommendation was again made in an "Address to the public," dated Phila-
delphia, August 20, 1829. Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 3, pp. 357-360).
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 125
nearly a similar rate throughout the city."0 In 1834, 600 women are
said to have been discharged at one time from a New York clothing
establishment.6
The average prices of tailoresses' work hi New York in 1831 may
be judged from Table B, which gives the bill of prices adopted at a
meeting of the Society of Tailoresses on June 16, 1831, and also the
bill adopted at a meeting of clothiers July 7, 1831. c The length of
the list shows, too, the extent of the employment of women in tail-
or's work. In addition to the advances in wages, the tailoresses
asked that all work taken to be made within ten days be considered
as "customers' work" and that for such work they be paid 25 cents
extra on each small job and 50 cents extra on all " coatees." The
clothiers named various prices for "customers' work" all somewhat
above regular prices, but not as much higher as asked by the tailor-
esses. For boys' and youths' clothes the tailoresses asked from 12J
cents to 37J cents less than for men's.0
In Boston conditions were as bad as in Philadelphia and New
York. The Rev. Joseph Tuckerman^ recorded in 1830 that he had
recently been told, "by a very respectable keeper of a slop shop,
that he has for some time past had 50 applications a day from
females for work with which he could not supply them; and the
work sought by them, is, coarse shirts to be made at 10, 8, or
even 6J cents each; or laborers' frocks, or duck pantaloons,
at the same prices." The average weekly wages for such work,
when a woman was fully employed, he gave as but a dollar or
a dollar and a quarter — less, apparently, than hi Philadelphia.
Rents, moreover, he stated to be higher in Boston than in Philadel-
phia, the common price of a room being a dollar a week.6 "It is
a Mechanics' Free Press, October 23, 1830. From the New York Sentinel. The
New York Sentinel was the first daily labor paper published in the United States.
One New York tailor, who was supposed to have a contract with the United States
Government in 1830, is said to have paid women 3 cents a piece for making trousers
and 6 pence for making vests. (Mechanics' Free Press, Sept. 11, 1830.)
&Niles' Register, vol. 45, p. 415, 1834.
c Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 4, pp. 4-10.
<*Tuckerman, An Essay on the Wages Paid to Females, Philadelphia, March 25,
1830. This essay won the prize offered by Mathew Carey in November, 1830, of a
gold medal of the value of $100 or a piece of plate of equal value, for the best essay
"on the inadequacy of the wages generally paid to seamstresses, spoolers, spinners,
shoe binders, etc., to procure food, raiment, and lodging; on the effects of that inade-
quacy upon the happiness and morals of those females and their families, when they
have any; and on the probability that those low wages frequently force poor women
to the choice between dishonor and absolute want of common necessaries. ' ' (Mechan-
ics' Press, Utica, Nov. 28, 1829; Free Trade Advocate, Philadelphia, Nov. 28, 1829.)
« The Boston Workingman's Advocate stated in 1830 that the seamstresses of that
city, though earning nominally more than in Philadelphia, 25 cents for a vest or a
pair of pantaloons, and 50 cents for a jacket, were in reality, because of the higher
price of rent and provisions and the longer winters in Boston, on a par with their
Philadelphia sisters. (Quoted in Mechanics' Free Press, Sept. 18, 1830.)
126 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAENEKS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
not easy," he said, "to obtain a room, either in a garret or cellar, and
however small, inconvenient, and unfit to live in, at 50 cents per
week. Nor are there many to be had for 62^, or 75 cents a week."0
Unemployment, moreover, appears to have been as great an evil
in Boston as in Philadelphia. One large tailoring establishment in
Boston, according to Joseph Tuckerman, "which has not unfre-
quently given employment to eight or nine hundred women, in the
coarse work of a large tailoring establishment; and * * * dur-
ing the business year of 1828, * * * employed, on an average,
* * * 300 females every day; but * * * now, and for some
months past, [has] not had work for more than an average of 170. "6
Even the fashionable milliners and mantua makers who were able
to earn $1 a day were said to have very little employment.0
In Baltimore, too, in 1833 the wages of sewing women were
declared "not sufficient for the genteel support of the single individual
who performs the work, although she may use every effort of industry
which her constitution is capable of sustaining," and the condition of
widows with small children was described as most deplorable .d
In 1836 the president of the tailors' society of Baltimore wrote of
widows who toiled night and day for 18J, 25, and 37J cents a day,
and stated that he had seen one woman, who asked ' ' in the humblest
a Tuckerman, An Esay on the Wages Paid to Females, Philadelphia, March 25,
1830, p. 15. The usual rent in Philadelphia was frequently given as 50 cents a
week.
& Idem, p. 39.
c Mechanics' Free Press, September 18, 1830. Quoted from the Boston Working
Man's Advocate. In 1831 it was estimated that 60 milliners in Boston employed 420
women at 75 cents a day. (Documents relative to the manufactures of the United
States, Executive Documents, Twenty-second Congress, first session, Vol. I, p. 451.)
d Baltimore Republican and Commercial Advertiser, September 20, 1833. The
Impartial Humane Society of Baltimore, according to Mathew Carey, paid the follow-
ing wages, which were higher than the prevailing rate (Carey: Appeal to the Wealthy
of the Land, third edition, Essay V, p. 18):
Cents.
Linen shirts 75 to 87$
Gentlemen's pantaloons 62$ to 75
Roundabouts 75
Linen collars 10
Unbleached cotton shirts, large 25
Unbleached cotton shirts, small 12$ to 18f
Bleached cotton shirts, large 31£
Bleached cotton shirts, small 25
Gentlemen's shams 18| to 50
Children's suits of clothes 50 to 87$
Children's cloaks 62$
Children's mittens 10 to 12$
Women's and children's aprons 6J to 31|
Women's plain dresses 43f to 50
Bonnets. . . 25 to 75
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 127
manner" for a little advance in pay, at once dismissed and sent home
"in tears."0
In Pittsburg, according to a letter from "A Tailoress" to the Pitts-
burg American Manufacturer, the tailors in 1830 paid for making a
pair of pantaloons, which took about 15 hours, 25 cents, and for
making a shirt "that takes a woman a whole day, if she attends to
any other work in her family," 12 J cents. The American Manu-
facturer added that it had made inquiry and found that these state-
ments were true.6 And even as far west as Cincinnati there were
said to be "many poor widows, who are destitute and suffering for
the common necessaries of life, because they can not obtain work or
a fair compensation for their labor." "At the present prices of
sewing," said the Workingmen's Shield, "a woman can rarely
realize more than 40 cents per day."c
The yearly receipts and expenditures of the average sewing woman
were estimated by Mathew Carey as follows : d
Forty-four weeks, at $1.25 $55. 00
Lodgings, 50 cents per week $26. 00
Fuel, 25 cents per week, but say only 12* 6. 50
32.50
Remains for victuals and clothes 22. 50
In making this estimate he assumed that muslin shirts and duck
pantaloons were made for 12 J cents each6 and other work in the
same proportion, though, he said, "these articles are often made for
10 cents — and even lower," that "an expert woman of considerable
skill might make ten per week working at least 16 hours per day," and
that one day a week was lost through sickness, unemployment, or the
care of children.
Later, however, a committee of ladies "of respectability, intelli-
gence, and competence to decide on the subject," whose names,
nevertheless, were suppressed "from motives of delicacy, " stated that
expert seamstresses could not make more than eight or nine shirts
a National Laborer, April 30, 1836.
& Quoted in the Workingman's Advocate, New York, December 18, 1830.
c Workingmen's Shield, Cincinnati, January 12, 1833.
d Carey's Miscellaneous Pamphlets, No. 12, To the Editor of the New York
Daily Sentinel, Philadelphia, 1831.
« In 1828 it was stated that the Provident Society paid 25 cents for making a shirt,
estimated at 10 hours' labor. (Mechanics' Free Press, Sept. 6, 1828.) But in 1829 the
Provident Society, the Government, and the keepers of "slop-shops" are said to
have paid only 12| cents for making shirts and pantaloons. (Carey's Miscellaneous
Essays, pp. 266-272. Report on Female Wages, Mar. 25, 1829.) During the winter of
1828-29 the Provident Society, it was said, gave employment to 1,000 or 1,100 females,
but was unable, out of "its very limited resources" to furnish them with more than 5
or 6 shirts each, making 62£ to 75 cents a week. (Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 3, pp.
357-360.)
128 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
or duck pantaloons a week, which at the highest price paid, 12 J
cents, would amount to only $1.12| per week, and that "cases very
frequently occur of the above articles being made for 10, and even
for 8, and sometimes for 6 cents." a
In the light of the statements of these 30 ladies, Mathew Carey
made a new estimate of the receipts and expenditures of seamstresses.
A woman without children and unemployed for any reason only six
weeks hi the year he estimated to have, if she made nine shirts a week,
a surplus, after paying rent at 50 cents a week, of an average of 7
cents a day throughout the year for food, fuel, and clothing. A
woman with children who could make, he estimated, only 7 shirts a
week, would have, by the same reasoning, only an average of 4 cents
a day for food, clothing, and fuel for herself and children. "Let it
be distinctly observed," he added, "that far more than half the
coarse shirts and duck pantaloons made in the Union, are made for
10 cents, or less, per piece."6
Again, in July, 1830, Mathew Carey wrote:
Coarse muslin shirts and duck pantaloons are made at various
prices, at 6, 8, 10, and 12J cents each. More, I have reason to
believe, are made below, than at 12£ cents. The Provident Society
in Philadelphia, and the commissary-general, it is true, pay 12 J
cents; but the shirts for the army are, I am informed, made hi New
York for 10 cents; the House of Industry, in Boston, pays but 10;
and 10, I am persuaded, is a high average throughout the United
States.
A skillful woman, constantly employed, working early and late, he
said, could not make more than 9 shirts a week, which would amount
to 90 cents, of which 50 cents went for rent, leaving only 40 cents, or
less than 6 cents a day for food, clothing, fuel, and other necessities.
And many of these women, he added, were not skillful, some were
superannuated, some had children to be cared for, some were sickly
themselves, and some had sickly husbands, while a large number
could not procure more than two or three days' work in the week,
and had to travel great distances for the work.c
In 1833 Mathew Carey made still another calculation of the receipts
and expenditures of the seamstress. d Laying aside all consideration
of unemployment, sickness, or lack of skill and rapidity, and taking as
a basis the highest wages paid outside of the Impartial Humane
Society of Baltimore and the Female Hospitable Society of Philadel-
<* Mechanics' Free Press, June 19, 1830. Poulson's American Daily Advertiser,
June 9, 1830.
& Mechanics' Free Press, June 19, 1830.
c Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 13, pp. 138-142. Dated July 1, 1830.
d Carey, Appeal to the Wealthy of the Land, third edition, Essay IV, p. 15.
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 129
phia,° he made, for a woman without children, the following calcula-
tion per annum:
Nine shirts per week, $1.12$ $58. 50
Rent, at 50 cents $26. 00
Shoes and clothes, suppose 10. 00
Fuel per week, say 15 cents 7. 80
Soap, candles, etc., 8 cents 4. 16
Remain for food and drink 20 cents per week, or about 2| cents per
day 10. 54
58. 50
"But suppose," he said, "the woman to have one or two children;
to work for 10 cents, which is not below the usual average; to be a
part of her time unemployed, say one day in each week; and to
make, of course, six, but say seven shirts"
Seven shirts, or 70 cents per week, is, per annum $36. 40
Rent, fuel, soap, candles, etc., as before $47. 96
Deficit 11.56
36. 40
"It may excite wonder," he said, "how the seamstresses, spoolers,
etc., are able to support human nature, as their rent absorbs above
two-fifths of their miserable earnings. The fact is, they generally
contrive to raise their rent by begging from benevolent citizens, and,
of course, their paltry earnings go to furnish food and clothing."6
During one winter, he added, the Provident Society of Philadelphia
had employed 1,000 seamstresses who could be given only 4 shirts
a week, for which they received 50 cents. Some of them had to
travel a distance of 2 miles "for this paltry pittance, and above
half of them had no other dependence. "c
a The Female Hospitable Society paid, according to the Appeal to the Wealthy of
the Land, third edition, Essay V, p. 19, the following wages:
Cents.
Fine linen shirts 50
Next quality linen shirts 40
Fine muslin shirts 40
Next quality muslin shirts 37$
Next quality muslin shirts 31^
Common muslin shirts 25
Coarse unbleached muslin shirts 18|
Boys' shirts 18|
Drawers and duck pantaloons 18f
Check shirts 16
Flannel shirts 14
Collars, separate from the shirt 6£, 8, 12$
Quilting 75 to $1. 25
Comfortables, according to the size, from $2 to $2.50 and $3
Bed quilts, according to the size, from $2 to $2.50 and $3
& Carey, Appeal to the Wealthy of the Land, third edition, Essay V, p. 18,
, Essay II, p. 8.
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol 9 9
130 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
Nevertheless, in 1830, a writer in the Delaware Advertiser denied
that there was any great amount of distress among sewing women.
Single women, he said, could earn a minimum of about $39 a year
at housework, and the distress, he therefore assumed, must be con-
fined to widows. Further assuming that about one out of six of the
population of Philadelphia was a married woman, that one-fifth to
one-eighth of these were widows, that not more than one-half of the
widows had children to support, that only about one-half of the lat-
ter had children under 8 years of age (for, he said, "a child may be
readily bound out at 8 years of age, and therefore a woman need
not be distressed by poverty if she has not children under that age"),
that only about one in three women was thrown into indigence by
the death of her husband, and that of these latter only about one-
third were not members of any religious society which supported its
own poor, he estimated that there were not more than 150 widows
in Philadelphia who were in want on account of low wages. a
In answer to this, Mathew Carey stated "that above 1,100 females
have applied weekly for work to the Provident Society, of whom
probably a full third at least were widows with small children; and
there are in the city of Philadelphia probably 5,000 or 6,000 women
who depend on their needles for support, among whom is a due pro-
portion of widows." Many of these women, he said, were unable,
through age, infirmity, or other causes, to do housework, and many
others had small children "whom maternal tenderness will not allow
them to part with."6 In answer to a letter of inquiry, he said else-
where, the matron of the Provident Society wrote him that at least
600 of the women who applied for work during the winter of 1829-30
were widows, that two-thirds of them had children to support, that
their compensation, while they took out work, averaged about 50
cents a week, and that few of them lived in the city, the greater part
coming in for work from Kensington, Northern Liberties, and South-
wark, the first place about 2 miles from the society's room. Assum-
ing that only about one-sixth of the seamstresses of Philadelphia
were supplied with work by the Provident Society, he estimated the
number of widows depending on needlework for support as about
3,000.c
0 Quoted in Delaware Free Press, Wilmington (Del.), February 27, 1830.
& "To the Printer of the Delaware Advertiser." Quoted in the Delaware Free
Press, February 27, 1830.
c Carey's Miscellaneous Pamphlets, No. 12, "To the Editor of the New York Daily
Sentinel." At another time Mathew Carey stated that "there are as many domestics
generally as there are situations for them." And thousands of the seamstresses in
New York, Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, he added, "are unfit for this kind
of employment — some from age, some from feebleness of constitution, some from hav-
ing small children to support whom they can not bear to part with." (Carey's Select
Excerpta, vol. 13, pp. 138-142. Dated July 1, 1830.)
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 131
He reiterated, moreover, his four propositions: (1) That the wages
of seamstresses were insufficient for their support, even when they
were constantly employed; (2) that there was a large amount of
unemployment among them, many of them being destitute of employ-
ment for half or a third of their time; (3) that were it not for the aid
of benevolent societies many of them would be reduced to absolute
pauperism; and (4) "that there is no grievance in this country that
calls more loudly for redress, or is more severe in its operations, or
more demoralizing in its consequences, than the paltry wages given
for most species of female labor, not averaging, in many cases, more
than one-third of what is earned by men for analogous employ-
ments."a
In support of his position, too, he quoted a statement of the Rev.
Ezra Stiles Ely that "a common slave in the States of Virginia, Ten-
nessee, and Kentucky is much better compensated for his labor by
his necessary food, clothing, lodging, and medicines, than many
respectable mothers and daughters in this city, who apply themselves
diligently to their work two hours for every one occupied by the
Negro in his master's service." And in conclusion he quoted a state-
ment of the managers of the Female Hospitable Society "that the
most wages that can be earned by the closest application to work,
either from Government, societies, or tailors, will not average more
than from $1 to $1.25 per week."a
Over and over again between 1828 and his death in 1839 Mathew
Carey returned to his charges of the inadequacy of the wages paid to
women in general and to sewing women in particular, carrying on
through these years perhaps the most remarkable agitation for
working women which this country has ever seen. His crusade,
however, was conducted almost entirely alone. "While I have met,"
he said in 1830, "with as much apparent sympathy as would suffice
for the forlorn tenants of V Hotel Dieu, or the wounded and dying
victims of Waterloo, I have not, with all my efforts, been able to
secure in New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, one active, efficient,
zealous, ardent cooperator to enter into the business, con amore."6
In Baltimore, as a result of these efforts, the Impartial Humane
Society was formed, and later a similar association, called the Female
Hospitable Society, was organized in Philadelphia. It was to these
two societies that Mathew Carey dedicated in 1833 his "Appeal to
the Wealthy of the Land, Ladies as Well as Gentlemen." "I have
known," he there said, "a lady expend a hundred dollars on a party;
pay thirty or forty dollars for a bonnet, and fifty for ti shawl; and
a " To the Printer of the Delaware Advertiser. ' ' Quoted in the Delaware Free Press,
February 27, 1830.
& Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 13, pp. 138-142. Dated July 1, 1830.
132 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
yet make a hard bargain with a seamstress or washerwoman, who
had to work at her needle or at the washing tub for thirteen or four-
teen hours a day to make a bare livelihood for herself and a numerous
family of small children."0
In this pamphlet Mathew Carey repeated and enlarged upon the
facts which he had previously brought before the public, and added a
number of other letters and statements supporting his position. A
letter from a New York police magistrate, for instance, stated that
the wages of women with children to support were so low that when-
ever their employment was interrupted they were obliged to pawn
some article of wearing apparel, until they were reduced to absolute
destitution and only charity stood between them and starvation.
Another evil, he said, was that these women were obliged to send
their children on the street to beg or to work at some light employ-
ment, which led to bad associations and frequently to crime. A
letter from the woman secretary of the Female Hospitable Society,
too, stated that of the women who applied to the society for employ-
ment not one in fifty was fit for domestic service. One-half, she
added, were aged, and one-fifth of the whole infirm. About three-
fourths were widows.6
Nine remedies were suggested in the Appeal to the Wealthy:
(1) That public opinion be brought to bear in denouncing employers
who "grind the faces of the poor;" (2) that "the employments of
females be multiplied as much as possible;" (3) that the poorer
classes be given exclusively "the business of whitewashing and other
low employments, now in a great degree monopolized by men;"
(4) that the provident societies be liberally supported and give liberal
wages; (5) that women be taught fine needlework; (6) that they
be taught cooking; (7) that schools for young ladies and infant
schools be taught by women; (8) that ladies who can afford it give
out their sewing and washing and pay fair prices; and (9) that pro-
vision be made by wealthy persons to send women to the interior of
the State and to the West, where they are wanted as domestics,
seamstresses, spoolers, spinners, and weavers in factories, etc.0
Little, however, seems to have been accomplished. The two
societies to which the "Appeal to the Wealthy" was dedicated
were founded and paid somewhat higher prices to seamstresses than
were customary in Philadelphia and Baltimore. But on October 19,
1833, Mathew Carey again wrote that "after laboring on the subject
since November, 1828, the conviction is reluctantly forced on me
that the attempt is utterly in vain and that it is impossible to excite
a Carey, Appeal to the Wealthy of the Land, third edition. Preface, p. 4.
& Idem, Essay IV, p. 17.
c Idem, Essay XII, pp. 33, 34.
I
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 133
public attention to the subject." Not one of the 72 ladies and 75
gentlemen who had subscribed to the statements made in May,
1830, he complained, had "contributed a dollar or made the slightest
effort to remedy the evils that press so heavily on this deserving and
numerous class of society."0
The appeal to charity was a failure, but Mathew Carey never
wholly abandoned the cause. Two years later he was credited
with stirring up "broomstick strikes" in Philadelphia.5 The truth
seems to be, however, that he merely cooperated with the organized
working women of Philadelphia by presiding at their meetings and
writing letters to the press in their behalf.0 He was frequently
criticised, in fact, by the labor papers, for asking charity for the
working women when justice was needed. Early in 1837, too,
Mathew Carey and others issued a letter to the clergy of Philadelphia
calling attention to the distress of the working women, which they
attributed to ' ' a complication of causes — the severity of the season, the
unprecedentedly high price of the necessaries of life, the suspension
of employment — in many cases from sickness * * * and probably
more than the rest, from the utterly inadequate wages of certain
species of female labor, by which a large portion of females, dependent
on their needle for support, are absolutely pauperized. "d Finally,
in December, 1837, Mathew Carey and 21 other men issued a call6
for another meeting to consider the inadequate wages of women, a
call which evoked from the editor of the Public Ledger some pointed
remarks about ' ' wholesale dealers in ready-made clothing, who make
fortunes out of [women's] unrequited labor." / This meeting was
duly held with Mathew Carey in the chair, 9 but nothing further is
heard of the movement, which could hardly have made headway
against the general industrial distress of the following years.
a Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 13, p. 13.
* See History of Women in Trade Unions, Volume X of this report, pp. 40, 41.
c The Man, June 24, 1835. In his letter accepting the invitation of the working
women to preside at their meeting, after reviewing his work in their behalf, he said:
"I did hope that all that was necessary to produce a decided effort to meliorate your
situation was to bring the subject in bold relief before the public. I was miserably
mistaken, and finally abandoned the undertaking as impracticable. The present
crisis is more favorable, and I do hope your efforts will be crowned with the success
they merit."
d National Laborer, January 14, 1837.
« Public Ledger, Philadelphia, December 12, 1837; Carey's Select Excerpta, vol.
13, pp. 417,418.
/ Public Ledger, December 12, 1837.
0 Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 13, pp. 418-420. In 1839 there was a proposal made
to incorporate "a manufacturing and clothing establishment" for the benefit of "poor
and industrious females," which was to make clothing for the southern and western
markets. (Public Ledger, May 3, 1839.)
134 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNEES WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
LATER CONDITIONS OF LABOR.
During the next few years, as has already been seen, there must
have been a large amount of unemployment and intense suffering in
the garment trades. The extent and degree of this suffering can
only be imagined, however, for, as has usually been the case, the
period of most bitter stress found no articulate expression.
By 1843, however, when business was again on the upgrade, there
were said to be widows in Cincinnati who supported their children
by making shirts for 10 cents each, or pantaloons for from 15 to 17
cents. It was estimated that 9 shirts a week, making 90 cents, would
be a large week's work.0 In New York in 1844 the usual prices for
making men's clothing were given as 30 or 40 cents for coats, 25
cents for pants and vests, and 12J cents for shirts and drawers.6
And in Boston, at a meeting of tailors and tailoresses in July, 1844,
the following cases were cited, and "received with immense sensa-
tion:"6
A lady who lives at 44 Front street; she works at pantaloons for
25 cents per pair, and can only make one pair in the day, and should
the least fault be found she would only get what they pleased to give
her. * * *
Hannah Silesy works for Andrew Carney; lives in Hatter's Square;
she makes navy shirts at 16 cents a piece; has to work 14 hours per
day to earn $2 per week; and at making striped shirts at 8 cents
a piece, can only earn $1 a week and work hard.
John Harkins can testify to a lady who worked for John Simmons,
Quincy Hall; made pantaloons at 25 cents per pair; can make five
pairs in a week which would amount to $1.25. She is a first-rate
tailoress.
Mrs. Oakes, 321 Ann street; she works for Gove & Lock; makes
pants for 12 J cents per pair and shirts at 8 cents apiece. She can
earn on an average $1.12J cents per week.
When the problem again came to the front in New York, in 1845,
the average wages of the sewing women were said by the Tribune to
be $1.50 to $2 a week, though many, it was added, did not earn more
than $1 a week.d Later in the year the Tribune gave the following
summary of the wages paid for different kinds of work and the
amount of time required for the various articles:6
For making common white and checked cotton shirts, 6 cents
each. Common flannel undershirts the same. These are cut in
a People's Paper, Cincinnati, August 24, 1843. This is exactly the estimate given
by Mathew Carey thirteen years earlier. (Carey's Select Excerpta, Vol. 13, pp.
138-142.)
& Workingman's Advocate, April 6, 1844.
c People's Paper, Cincinnati, September 22, 1843 [1844]. See History of Women
in Trade Unions, Volume X of this report, p. 58, for one other case cited.
<* New York Daily Tribune, March 7, 1845.
« Idem, August 14, 1845.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 135
such a manner as to make ten seams in two pairs of sleeves. A
common fast seamstress can make two of these shirts per day.
Sometimes very swift hands, by working from sunrise to midnight,
can make three. This is equal to 75 cents per week (allowing nothing
for holidays, sickness, accidents, being out of work, etc.) for the
first class and $1.12J for the others.
Good cotton shirts, with linen bosoms, neatly stitched, are made
for 25 cents. A good seamstress will make one in a day, thus earn-
ing $1.50 per week, by constant labor.
Fine linen shirts, with plaited bosoms, which can not be made by
the very best hand in less than 15 to 18 hours' steady work, are
paid 50 cents each. Ordinary hands make one shirt of this kind in
2 days.
Duck trousers, overalls, etc., 8 and 10 cents each. Drawers and
undershirts, both flannel and cotton, from 6 to 8 cents, at the ordi-
nary shops, and 12^ at the best. One garment is a day's work for
some, others can make two.
Satinet, cassimere, and broadcloth pants, sometimes with gaiter
bottoms and lined, from 18 to 30 cents per pair. One pair is a good
day's work.
Vests, 25 to 50 cents, the latter price paid only for work of the
very best quality. Good hands make one a day.
Thin coats are made for 25 to 37 J cents apiece.
Heavy pilot-cloth coats, with three pockets, $1 each. A coat of
this kind can not be made under 3 days.
Cloth roundabouts and pea jackets, 25 to 50 cents. Three can be
made in 2 days.
There were other hardships, too. For example, it was stated by
the Tribune that one woman, after having sought work for 2 days
in New York, had finally taken garments to make by which she
earned 60 cents as the result of her first week's work. But when
she returned the work she was offered credit on the books, to be
paid when the amount was sufficient.0
As for the conditions under which the sewing women of New York
worked, the Tribune described them as squalid and unhealthy in
the extreme, stating that —
These women generally "keep house" — that is, they rent a single
room, or perhaps two small rooms, in the upper story of some poor,
ill-constructed, unventilated house in a filthy street, constantly kept
so by the absence of back yards and the neglect of the street in-
spector— where a sickening and deadly miasma pervades the atmos-
phere, and in summer renders it totally unfit to be inhaled by human
lungs, depositing the seeds of debility and disease with every inspira-
tion. In these rooms all the processes of cooking, eating, sleeping,
washing, working, and living are indiscriminately performed.6
After paying the rent of from $12 to $14.50 for such miserable homes,
added the Tribune article, only the scantiest food could be purchased,
and nothing was left for clothing or fuel in winter. Even charity
a New York Daily Tribune, October 14, 1845. & Idem, August 14, 1845.
136 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
was shown to have been insufficient to meet the need during the
winter season, when many of these women were out of employment.
The worst features of this state of things are its hopelessness and
its constant tendency from bad to worse. Small as are the earn-
ings of these seamstresses, they constantly tend to diminish. Hun-
dreds of young women are daily attracted to the cities by vague
hopes of doing better, or by the allurements of false friends; many
are constantly coming over from Europe ; thousands are left here by
sailor husbands or fathers, or brothers, to get along as they can
during their several protectors' absence on voyages; still more are
left destitute by the sudden death of those to whom they had looked
for support, by utter bankruptcy, or by flight or imprisonment on
account of crime.0
Similar accounts of conditions in the garment trades were common
during the next few years. In 1846 shirts were said to be made in
New York at 4 cents each or 48 cents per dozen, one dozen being
about 4 days' work. 6 In 1848, however, 6 cents was given as the
piece wage for common cotton shirts and flannel undershirts in New
York, and it was said that a seamstress could finish two or three in
a day, making a weekly wage of from 72 cents to $1.08. Good cotton
shirts were made for 25 cents each, but only one could be made in a
day, giving $1.50 a week. The finest linen shirts, which required
from 15 to 18 hours of steady work, were made for 50 cents each.
For making trousers, overalls, drawers, and undershirts a shilling
apiece was paid and one or perhaps two could be made in a day.
For cloth pantaloons and vests 18 to 50 cents were paid and a woman
could make on an average about one a day. c On the other hand,
the sewing girls of Lansingburg, N. Y., are said to have earned in
1849, $3 a week,d and, according to one writer, women vest makers
in New York in 1851 averaged $4.50 a week.*
The Shirt Sewers' Cooperative Union of New York, however, esti-
mated in 1851 that there were 6,000 shirt sewers in New York City,
many of them widows with children, who earned from $2 to $2.50
per week, f
And in the same year a Philadelphia paper is said to have pub-
lished an article stating that in New York, Philadelphia, and most
a New York Daily Tribune, March 7, 1845. In 1846, the Michigan Journal sug-
gested that the starving seamstresses of New York should come to that State, where
their labor was much needed as domestics, to which the editor of the Voice of
Industry sarcastically replied that "even in New York people do not think of starv-
ing while they have money enough to carry them from that city to Michigan." (Voice
of Industry, Dec. 18, 1846.)
b The Harbinger, December 19, 1846. Quoted from Young America, New York.
c New York Daily Tribune, August 12, 1848.
<*New York Weekly Tribune, October 8, 1849.
« Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
/ New York Daily Tribune, July 31, 1851.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 137
of the principal eastern cities0 there were places where shirts with
bosoms and collars were made for 12 cents and pantaloons for 25
cents. The most expert workers could make in a day only two shirts
or one pair of pantaloons. 6
Finally, an investigation made by the Tribune in 1853, before the
sewing machine had come into general use, disclosed "the existence
of an amount of wretchedness, immorality, and crime — the conse-
quence of their low earnings — truly appalling." This investigation
included the garment makers, boot and shoe binders, and parasol
makers. Though some thousands of " milliners, dressmakers, etc./'
received, it was said, from $3.50 to $6 a week, putting them " beyond
the dangers of temptation," hundreds of women tailoresses and seam-
stresses had an average yearly income, if fully employed, of only
$91. In at least 50 establishments, it was said, the recognized scale
of 18 cents each for summer vests, 20 cents for pantaloons, and 18
cents for light coats, would produce, in a working day of 12 hours,
about 24 cents. Shirts, it was added, three of which were a hard
day's work, were paid for at the rate of 8, 7, 5, and some as low as
4 cents each. At the rate of 5 cents each, it was estimated, taking
into consideration the time needed to obtain and return the goods
and other journeys to secure her pay, that a woman could not make
over 50 cents a week. c
Other evils, in addition to low wages, were disclosed by this inves-
tigation. It was said, for instance, that many of the cheap "slop
shops" required from their employees a deposit to the full value of the
material taken out to be made up, a deposit whicn, it was added, was
frequently not returned when work became scarce, and there was
none to be given out.c
Still another evil disclosed by the New York Tribune investigation
of 1853 was the manner in which the reckoning was made, "96 cents
to the dollar only being given." "Not only," said the Tribune, "do
they make this deduction in prices scandalously low at the best, but
it is very common to leave a portion of even these miserable earnings
'to account' — an account which, alas, is often totally repudiated.
Imagine a poor creature paid at the rate of 5 cents a shirt, on which
she has had to make a deposit of its value, being paid a portion and
told to 'let the remainder stand over for a settlement/ and this regard-
less whether she may live at the Battery or in Fiftieth street. This
latter is perhaps the most crying, oppressive, and disgusting tyranny
of the entire villainous system, and one which is carried on to an
<* Sewing women in San Francisco are said to have received in 1853 from $40 to $70
per month. (New York Daily Tribune, June 10, 1853.)
& Quoted in Fincher's Trades' Review, September 10, 1864.
« New York Daily Tribune, June 8, 1853.
138 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
incredible extent." By this system, it was said, many employers
who pretended to pay good prices, reduced wages to the level of the
worst employers. "We have known instances," said the Tribune,
"where these professedly fair-priced houses have for successive weeks
paid but 50 cents on account, and when work became scarce have
postponed settlement day after day, till the patience of the claimant
has been exhausted, and she has been compelled to give up her claim
in self-defense, despairing of getting a final settlement, and neglecting
in the meantime other employment." °
The clothing merchants during this period appear to have pros-
pered. Mathew Carey asserted in 1829 that a comparison of the
prices charged to the public for articles and the wages paid for their
manufacture proved that wages might be raised sufficiently to insure
comfort.6 In 1836 the Philadelphia Public Ledger stated that "a
common stock, the material of which cost about 25 cents, and for
making which a female receives about as much more, is sold by a mer-
chant tailor for $3, or 500 per cent advance." Those who employed
female labor, added the Ledger, were "deriving from it immense for-
tunes." c In the same year, too, the Pennsylvanian stated that while
the seamstress was paid 8 or 10 cents for making a pair of duck
pantaloons, the dealer sold them to the sailor for at least five times that
sum, "for taking them from the seamstress and handing them to the
sailor." d Orestes Brownson, too, commenting in 1840 upon the
insufficient wages of the seamstresses, blamed the employer who, he
said, "grows rich on their labor — passes among us as a pattern of
morality, and is honored as a worthy Christian. "g Four years later
the New York Sun also referred to the merchants as "getting rich
from the labor of the poor, because," it said, "as fair prices are paid
for clothing, if seamstresses and tailoresses only received sufficient for
their work to enable them to live, no complaint would be made." /
And in 1849, at a meeting of journeymen tailors and tailoresses in
Boston, it was said that 20 cents was paid in that city for making
a New York Daily Tribune, June 8, 1853.
b Carey's Miscellaneous Pamphlets, No. 12, "To the Editor of the New York
Daily Sentinel," Philadelphia, 1831.
c Public Ledger, March 26, 1836. The same charge was again made by the Ledger
on September 16, 1836, and December 12, 1837.
<* Pennsylvanian, February 15, 1836.
« Boston Quarterly Review, July, 1840, p. 369. "The Laboring Classes." Review
of Carlyle's Chartism.
/Quoted in the Workingman's Advocate, August 17, 1844. The Workingman's
Advocate, in reply, sarcastically remarked: "If they can only live, no matter whether
they are doomed to a life of ceaseless, unnatural drudgery, to which a Southerner would
disdain to subject his slaves! If they don't die of starvation, no matter if they do toil
unceasingly and die a premature death!"
CHAPTER ITT. CLOTHING AND THK SKWING TRADES. 139
vests that sold for $1.75 to $2.50, 7 cents for pants and overalls sold
for 75 cents to $1, and 7 cents for shirts sold for $1.50.a
On the other hand, in 1845, the Tribune attributed the low wages
to the oversupply of women workers, which created a competition
before which the clothing makers themselves were helpless. "The
female population of our city," said the Tribune, "as of almost every
great city, considerably outnumbers the male, while employment,
though deficient for both, is distributed in inverse ratio. There are
thus many more seamstresses, or females wishing to be such, than are
required in that capacity — probably twice as many as would find em-
ployment at fair wages. Under these circumstances, nothing can
prevent low wages and a constant tendency to lower. The clothing
makers for the southern trade are generally the target of popular
hostility on account of low wages, and there can be no doubt that
many of them are gripers. But if they were all the purest phi-
lanthropists, they could not raise the wages of their seamstresses to
anything like a living price. Necessity rests as heavily upon them
as upon the occupant of the most contracted garret. They can only
live by their business so long as they can get garments made here low
enough to enable them to pay cost, risk, and charges and undersell
the seamstresses of some other section. If they were compelled to
pay living wages for their work, they must stop it altogether. We
must go behind them, therefore, to reach the heart of the evil we are
considering." b
About the same tune the New York Sun also asserted that one of
the chief causes of the low wages paid to seamstresses was that "there
are more laborers than the market for labor demands." "In a
practical branch of industry," it added, "say in the making of cloth-
ing for the South, there is constant employment for 1,000 hands,
while there are actually 2,000 ready and anxious to engage in it,
if they could obtain anything like fair prices. The superfluous hands
underbid each other, until the lowest term on which life can be sup-
ported is accepted." c For this reason the Sun saw no hope of an
increase of wages through combination, but recommended that a
greater variety of occupations be found for women, especially that
they be employed as clerks in stores.**
The competition of immigrants, though mentioned as early as 1830,
along with that of the inmates of almshouses, as one of the causes of
the wretchedly low wages paid to seamstresses,0 was not nearly so
« New York Weekly Tribune, August 29, 1849. Quoted from the Chronotype.
& New York Daily Tribune, March 7, 1845. As early as 1835 the Radical Reformer
and Workingman's Advocate stated that the banking system was the cause of the
sufferings of the working women, and that the employers were nearly as badly off as
the employed.
c Quoted in the Workingman's Advocate, March 8, 1845.
dSee Chapter VII of this volume, "Trade and transportation, p. 235."
140 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNEBS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
important a factor during this early period as during the past half
century. In 1845 a large majority of the total number of sewing
women in New York, which was estimated by the Tribune as about
10,000, were said to be American born.6
Very early, however, complaint began to be made of the com-
petition of women who were not obliged to earn their living. As
early as 1830 the Massachusetts Journal and Tribune attributed the
bad conditions of woman's work, as well as other industrial evils, to
"underbidding." "Those who have a home and all the necessaries
of life," it said, "will underbid them [the poor women] for the sake of
buying a new belt, or a new feather/' and added: "Every woman is
bound to make it a principle not to do work for less than the very poor
can afford to do it."c Another paper stated that in Boston "ladies
who live in fine houses, elegantly furnished, whose kitchens swarm
with servants, take in work at half price for those servants to do." d
The Farmers', Mechanics' and Workingmen's Advocate of Albany6
called this, however, "a very inadequate account of the matter," and
asserted that "the heartless avarice of employers is a cause of per-
petual influence and untiring power, and to this can we look as the
only sufficient cause of the evil."
Country competition was a cause of complaint in 1845. "We know
instances," said the New York Morning News, " where shirt makers
put their work out in the country in the winter at 11 cents each.
The work is done by those who do not make it a means of living, but
use it merely as an auxiliary to dress." f The Voice of Industry, too,
stated in 1845 that "a gentleman told us, the other day, that he saw
the daughter of a respectable farmer making shirts at 1 1 cents apiece,
for one of the dealers. He asked her whether she thought it a suffi-
cient price. 'No/ said she, 'if I were obliged to support myself, I
could not do it by this work; but I merely employ my time which
otherwise I should not use.' " o
In the same year the chairwoman of a meeting of working women in
New York said that she knew several employers wlio paid only from
10 to 18 cents per day, and that one employer, who offered girls 20
cents per day, told them that if they did not take it "he would obtain
girls from Connecticut who would work for less even than what he
offered." h
a Mechanics' Free Press, October 23, 1830. Quoted from the New York Sentinel.
6 New York Daily Tribune, August 14, 1845.
c Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 13, p. 312.
d Mechanics' Free Press, September 18, 1830.
« Farmers', Mechanics' and Workingmen's Advocate, Albany (N. Y.), October 20,
1830.
/ Quoted in the New York Daily Tribune, March 27, 1845.
9 Voice of Industry, June 26, 1845.
fc Workingman's Advocate, March 8, 1845. Quoted from the New York Herald.
Reprinted in Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. VIII, p. 227.
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 141
By 1850 the cheap labor of the farmhouse is said to have been
employed "in the getting up of clothing, shirts, stocks, hosiery, sus-
penders, carriage trappings, buttons, and a hundred other light
things." a And again in 1853 women working for pin money were
said by the New York Tribune to have been responsible for the low
wages paid to needlewomen. 6
Both division of labor and the true "sweating" or subcontract
system had their origin, though only upon a small scale, during this
period. A writer in 1851, for instance, 'complained of the subdivision
of labor by which vest making had become a separate and distinct
business, and intimated that the making of pantaloons and of coats
were also independent branches. c This much division of labor, indeed,
appears to have been made almost from the beginning of the wholesale
trade. Some progress, too, was probably made in dividing up the
work upon a single garment, but this movement was probably slight
until after the introduction of the sewing machine.
As early as 1835 a resolution was passed by the National Trades'
Union denouncing "the Government contractors " for "withholding"
from " the females in their employ * * * a fair remuneration for
their labor, and by those means enriching themselves at the expense
of the poor helpless females," d and in 1836 complaints of "combina-
tions" of clothing dealers, by which wages were reduced, were made
both in New York e and in Philadelphia. f
By. 1844, moreover, and probably earlier, there were instances of
the true sweating system. In that year it was recorded that a man
and two women working together from 12 to 16 hours a day earned
a dollar amongst them, and that the women, if they did not belong
to the family, received each about $1.25 a week for their work, the
man paying out of the remaining $3.50 about $1 a week for rent of
his garret, and being obliged to pay this amount whether employed or
not. 0 In 1853, moreover, the investigation of the clothing trade made
oMooney, Nine Years in America, 1850, p. 17.
b New York Daily Tribune, June 8, 1853.
c Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
<* National Trades' Union, October 10, 1835. Reprinted in Documentary History
of American Industrial Society, Vol. VI, pp. 257, 258. The preamble and resolution
were as follows:
Whereas, This convention, having in view the interest of the working classes,
whether male or female, and having reason to believe that the compensation paid for
female labor, and especially for those employed on the Government work, to be alto-
gether inadequate to supply them with the necessaries of life, and a great cause of the
increase of crime, as daily evidence proves: Therefore,
Resolved, That we view with feelings of strong indignation the advantages taken
by avaricious and hard-hearted employers, especially the government contractors, of
the females in their employ, by withholding from them a fair remuneration for their
labor, and by those means enriching themselves at the expense of the poor helpless
females.
« New York Evening Post, March 9, 1836.
/ Philadelphia Public Ledger, December 28, 1836.
Q Workingman's Advocate, July 27, 1844.
142 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
by the New York Tribune disclosed the existence of a " middle system."
For example, near one of the streets running from the Bowery to the
East River an old Irish woman was found who had four girls at
work for her, their compensation consisting solely of food for six
days of the week. In another case a woman had hired four " learn-
ers/' two of whom received only board and lodging, and the other two
$1 a week each without food.a These were all evidently instances of
the true sweating system.
THE MACHINE IN THE GARMENT TRADES.
GROWTH OF THE BEADY-MADE BUSINESS.
The introduction of the sewing machine gave a great impetus to
the manufacture of medium-grade ready-made clothing. It was not,
indeed, until after the invention of the machine that such clothing
was made in large quantities. As soon as the sewing machine came
into use, moreover, the ready-made-clothing business, which had
already gradually encroached upon the field of custom work, lost its
earlier earned and deserved title of "slop work" and became prac-
tically a new industry.
Gradually, too, it extended its dominion to higher and higher
grades of work. Men's overcoats were among the more expensive
articles which soon became popular, but gradually other articles
were introduced. Boys' ready-made clothing was soon added to
men's, and article after article of women's wear has yielded itself to
this method of manufacture. In Philadelphia in 1858 the manu-
facture of men's clothing was the principal part of the business, but
boys' clothing, shirts, collars and bosoms, and certain kinds of ladies'
clothing, such as mantillas, corsets, etc., were made.6 The manufac-
ture of cloaks and mantillas as a wholesale business was said to have
begun between 1848 and 1858. c As an important industry, how-
ever, the manufacture of women's clothing, principally cloaks, began
early in the sixties, about the time that the Civil War, through the
Government demand for clothing for soldiers and sailors, was giving
another great impetus to the men's ready-made-clothing industry.
The manufacture of women's suits was not begun, however, until
early in the eighties, and underwear, which was manufactured in
New York as early as 1868, d was not made in large quantities until
after 1890.e
The introduction of the sewing machine and the growth of the
ready-made business were also accompanied by two other important
a New York Daily Tribune, June 8, 1853.
b Freedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures, p. 223.
c Idem, p. 225.
<* The Revolution, March 12, 1868, gives a description of an establishment in which
plain underwear for ladies and children, lingerie, and infants' robes were made,
« Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, p. 300.
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 143
changes in the industry, first, the division of the labor involved in
the manufacture of single garments, and second, the growth of the
subcontract system. In tailoring the division of labor caused the
introduction of women workers on certain parts of the high-grade
work formerly performed by all-round men tailors — especially in
"finishing." It has already been seen that the tailoring business
had earlier been divided into the making of coats, vests, and panta-
loons, each of which had become a separate trade. But now the
making of each single garment began to be divided into a number of
separate operations, requiring different kinds and degrees of skill. At
the same time, moreover, the manufacture of ready-made clothing
began to be "carried on by the journeymen tailors" between seasons.0
The subcontract system does not appear to have assumed a very
important place until it was introduced about 1863 or earlier by
contractors for army clothing. At first, moreover, the work for the
subcontractors was practically all done in the home, except for the
cutting, which appears always to have been done in shops. The only
change, in many cases, was that the materials were passed through
an extra set of hands in each transaction, and political chicanery
appears to have been originally responsible for this unnecessary dupli-
cations of functions. The need for capital invested in sewing ma-
chines and later in power to run the machines, however, naturally
produced a tendency to gather the workers in "sweat shops," in
small establishments, and finally in factories, and the subcontractor
as naturally became the "boss" of a group of workers, owning or
renting on his own responsibility his shop and machinery.
STATISTICS.
During this second period of the garment manufacture, the pro-
portion of women employed, upon the whole, decreased. Table XI
shows that between 1860 and 1900 the proportion of women to the
total number of employees engaged in the manufacture of both men's
and women's clothing, "factory product," decreased, as did also the
proportion engaged in dressmaking,6 and after 1880 in the manu-
facture of shirts.0 In 1905 women constituted 54.9 per cent of all
« Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, p. 296.
& As early as 1871 there were said to be half a dozen dressmaking establishments
in New York where the sewing upon dresses was almost entirely performed by men.
(The Revolution, February 9, 1871.)
« See article by Miss Abbott and Miss Breckinridge in the Journal of Political
Economy, January, 1906, vol. 14, pp. 14-40, on the "Employment of women in
industries, Twelfth Census statistics. ' ' The conclusions there reached in regard to the
movement from 1890 to 1900 in the clothing industry are that "(1) the employment
of men and women is decreasing; (2) the employment of children is increasing; (3)
the employment of both men and women in the making of men's clothing is decreasing,
though increasing in the manufacture of women's ready-made garments; (4) the num-
144 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
the employees engaged in the manufacture of men's clothing, 62.4
per cent of those engaged in the manufacture of women's clothing,
not including dressmaking, and 77.4 per cent of those engaged in the
manufacture of shirts. a
WAGES AND CONDITIONS OF LABOR.
When the sewing machine was first introduced it was predicted
that the needle would soon become a mere object of curiosity, and
that there would be great distress among the sewing women owing to
lack of employment. In view of this expected result, the need of
opening up to women new occupations, such as bookkeeping and
tending shops, b was urged. The first effects of the machine were,
doubless, an intensified struggle for work and a reduction of wages
by a reduction in the piece rates. In 1864 it was said that the sewing
machine had caused such a reduction of wages as to drive many a
poor sewing girl almost to starvation or suicide. c
The period of transition from hand work to machine work, when
the hand worker was brought into competition with the machine
operative, must have been a painful time to the sewing women. As
Virginia Penny said, sewing machines enabled women to do much
work previously performed by men only, but soon nearly as many
men as women were employed on them. d
Gradually, however, a readjustment of work and pay was effected
through an enormous extension of the ready-made trade and a reduc-
tion of piece rates. Wages have always, owing to the seasonal char-
acter of the trade, been not only low but decidedly unstable. The
rates of wages here given, however, were probably more often for
hand work than for machine work. Though in this period the
machine was the competitor of the needle, the years before 1880
were essentially years of .transition and, consequently, in the part of
her of "women in dressmaking is decreasing and the number of men increasing. It is
impossible to explain these changes."
According to the Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Indus-
tries (pp. 283 and 301), between 1890 and 1900 the development of the women's
cloak and suit business was such as to cause the substitution of men for women on the
better grades of work, but meanwhile women had almost entirely displaced men on
the cheaper grades of work, owing to the fact that they would work for about two-thirds
the wages paid to men. The rapid development of the shirt-waist and underwear
business, too, had combined to increase the number of both sexes employed in the
manufacture of women's cloth? ".g, factory product.
« Derived from figures in Special Reports of the Census Office, Manufactures, 1905,
Part I, pp. 6, 17. In men's clothing, "men's clothing, buttonholes" is included.
6 The Una, February, 1854, Vol. II, p. 223.
c Daily Evening Voice, December 26, 1864. It should be remembered that
Fincher's Trades' Review and the Daily Evening Voice were both labor papers, the
former published in Philadelphia and the latter in Boston.
* Penny, Think and Act, 1869, p. 33.
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 145
the period of machine industry which it is here attempted to describe,
hand work had only in part been superseded by the machine.
In 1863 the weekly wages of sewing women in Philadelphia ranged
from $1.50 to $4.32,a and in New York wages were as low or lower.
At a meeting of Brooklyn sewing women in 1863 one woman said that
10 to 12 cents per dozen was paid for making drawers in New York,
but that a shop in Brooklyn had offered her 4£ cents per pair for
drawers and army shirts, by which she could make 22 cents per day.6
In 1864 William H. Sylvis, in an address at the iron molders7 con-
vention, spoke of the 30,000 sewing women of New York, who by
working day and night earned only from $1 to $3 per week.c And in
the same year the case was cited of a New York woman who made
drawers, sewed on the machine and estimated to have 1,800 stitches
when finished, for 4J cents a pair. From 7 a. m. to 9 p. m. a woman
could make 4 pairs, or 16J cents a day. Another woman made larger
drawers, 2,000 stitches, at 5 J cents per pair, furnishing her own thread,
and could make only 2 pairs a day. As for hours, her remark was:
1 ' If I get to bed about daylight and sleep two or three hours, I feel
satisfied." Still another woman made haversack pockets by hand at
1J cents, or 12J cents for 10 hours' work, furnishing the thread.
Knapsacks, made by hand at 7J cents each, yielded their makers 22£
cents a day if they began at 6 a. m. and worked until about 11 p. m.
The following case was even worse :
A coarse flannel army shirt, large size, made by hand sewing.
Collar, wristbands, and gussets, put on with double rows of stitching
all around. The seams all felled, 3 buttonholes, buttons, and stays,
requiring upward of 2,000 stitches. The woman who made this
garment was 60 years of age. She has worked on these shirts since
the war broke out, receiving 7 cents, each one of them being a good
day's work for her. Younger women might make two or perhaps
three in 12 hours, furnishing their own thread. This old lady occu-
pied, with another woman, a damp, dark basement, where she
strained her eyes hi the daytime and sewed by the light of her neigh-
bor's lamp during the evening. At the end of the week her net
earnings, after paying for needles and thread, amounted to 39 cents
in " currency." d
In Boston the wages of sewing women in 1864 were said to have
been from $3 to $3.50 per week,e and in 1866, according to the report
of the Massachusetts commission on hours of labor, though milliners,
dressmakers, and tailoresses were well paid, the women engaged on
a See Table C, p. 262, Fincher's Trades' Review, November 21, 1863.
6 Fincher's Trades' Review, December 12, 1863.
cldem, January 16, 1864. Sylvis, Life, Speeches, Labors and Essays of Wm. H.
Sylvis, p. 104. Wm. H. Sylvis was president of the Iron Holders' International
Union and later of the National Labor Union.
dldern, April 2, 1864.
« Daily Evening Voice, December 13, 1864.
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol 9 10
146 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS—WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
coarse sewing received very low wages, earning only with difficulty
over $3 a week. A Boston minister testified that he had known
women to make coarse pantaloons for 84 cents a dozen and flannel
shirts for 75 cents a dozen, being able to make only a dozen of either
in a week.0
In other places conditions were equally bad. A " shoddy contrac-
tor" in Buffalo in 1864, employing 29 girls, paid them $2.75 to $3 a
week, and it was said "the girls work two weeks for nothing."6 In
Detroit, in 1864, according to Richard Trevellick, seamstresses were
paid $1 to make a heavy overcoat and 30 cents to make a vest or pair
of pantaloons.6 In Portland, too, women's wages were extremely
low. A correspondent of the Portland Courier in 1865 said that he
saw a woman at work on pants for an oilcloth establishment, for
which she said she received 87J cents a dozen, or a little more than.
7 cents a pair. About three pairs, he estimated, could be made in a
day, which would amount to about 22 cents. c The sewing women of
Utica, N. Y., in 1866 were obliged, it was said, to pay for board $2.50
per week, and many of them did not earn more than that amount,
working from 6 a. m. to 12 p. m.d Earlier in the year a letter
appeared in the Utica Daily Herald from a woman who worked 18
hours a day, supporting a family of children by " making pants for
merchant tailors for 31 cents apiece (when sold for $10)," and "coats
for $1.50 or $2 that sell all the way from $20 to $50." e
By the end of the war period the wages of sewing women had risen,
though not in proportion to the cost of living. According to Table D,
wages in New York in 1866 ranged from $3 to $10, whereas in 1863
they had ranged from $2.50 to $8 per week.-f Table E shows the
estimated weekly earnings of sewing women in New York in 1868 to
have ranged from $1.80 to $20, the latter sum earned only by parasol
makers. ^
In some instances, however, even money wages were as low as in
1830. In 1867 a speaker before a mass meeting in behalf of the
Working Women's Protective Union of New York exhibited a pair of
pantaloons for the making of which 20 cents was paid, a shirt for
6 cents, and drawers for 8 cents per pair, three pair of which, netting
24 cents, could be made in a day.^ The next year it was asserted
a Daily Evening Voice, March 3, 1866.
& Fincher's Trades' Review, August 13, 1864. It was not stated in this instance,
or in many of those which follow, exactly what was meant by "making," whether
it included all the work on the garment or a special subdivision of the work. Prob-
ably in most cases the garments were only cut out in the shops.
c Daily Evening Voice, March 9, 1865.
d Idem, November 6, 1866.
« Quoted in Daily Evening Voice, March 10, 1866.
/ See Table D, p. 262. Daily Evening Voice, March 2, 1867.
Q See Table E, p. 262. The Revolution, October 1, 1868.
h Daily Evening Voice, March 2, 1867.
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 147
that 50 cents a dozen was the price then paid in New York for making
common overalls. a And in the same year a sewing woman, writing to a
distinguished philanthropist, said that she had stitched satin vests for
one employer at 3 shillings a vest, for the making of which he received
10 shillings, and that she had made shirts at a shilling each, and earned
sometimes $1 a week, and sometimes 10 shillings.6
Shirts were said to be made in New York in 1868 at lower prices
than in Europe, and vests for 13 cents. One speaker before a meet-
ing at Mount Vernon, N. Y., asserted that if the sewing women ugot
up at 4 o'clock in the morning and worked till 10 o'clock at night,
they could earn 90 cents."0 At another meeting a woman testified
that she had made drawers for a Government contractor at 4 cents a
pair, finishing five pairs a day, and buttonholes at 8 cents a dozen.d
Even in factories where underwear was manufactured wages were
very low. In one such factory in New York in 1868 a woman 72
years of age was found working for $3 a week, and a little girl who
claimed she was 13, but looked about 9, was working for the promise
of $5 a month at the end of her four weeks' apprenticeship, and
nothing in the meanwhile. In the same establishment, however, at
cloak making, old hands earned as much as $10 a week/
Wages in New York in 1869 were said to be "for heavy cloth panta-
loons, lined, finished, and pressed (shop work), 18 to 24 cents a pair;
for lined coats with three pockets and six buttonholes, $1 a dozen —
8 cents each; for shirts, best quality, $1.50 a dozen; for shirts, second
quality (retailing at $2 each), $1.25 a dozen; for shirts, third quality,
75 cents a dozen; for fancy flannel shirts, lapel on breast, turnover
collar, cuffs, gussets, buttonholes, 6 cents each; for "jumpers" (blue
overshirts) ending at waist in a band, with long sleeves, 50 cents a
dozen."/ Meanwhile, it was said that Portland women who were
making clothing for New York houses got 25 cents apiece for woolen
sack coats, from 12 J to 18 cents for pants, 40 cents for ordinary over-
coats, and from 60 to 75 cents for the heaviest and best made over-
coats.^
« The Revolution, February 19, 1868.
& Idem, August 13, 1868.
cldem, September 24, 1868.
dldem, October 29, 1868. Earlier in the year, however, a man wrote to the New
York Sun that his wife had answered an advertisement for buttonhole makers in that
paper, and had been given work to do at 5 cents a dozen, she finding the thread. She
was a quick hand, he said, and could make a good buttonhole in every six minutes, or
eight dozen in ten hours, amounting to 40 cents for a 10-hour day. When she told her
employer that it was an utter impossibility to make them at that figure, he replied
that he could get them made even cheaper. (The Revolution, Feb. 5, 1868.)
'Idem, March 12, 1868.
/Idem, April 22, 1869.
?Idem, May 27, 1869.
148 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EABNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
In 1870 the New York Times told of a woman in that city who
made vests at 18 cents apiece for a wholesale house. By working 14
hours a day, including Sundays, she could make, it was said, $8 a
month only. She paid $3 a month for her attic, had two small children
to support, and in January said she had eaten meat only once since
Thanksgiving, and then it was given to her.
Another woman, a " finisher" of fine shirts, made about $2 a week,
had a grandmother to support, and often lived for weeks on bread and
water in order to provide a little broth every day for the old woman.0
Again, in 1871, the Rev. Dr. Talmage in a sermon spoke of the sewing
women and their hardships, and mentioned the case of one woman who
was making garments at 8 cents apiece and could make but 3 a day,
and of others who made coarse shirts at 6 cents each and found their
own thread.6
Still another statement of weekly wages in New York in 1870
was to the effect that, though seamstresses in families received from
$7 to $12, those engaged in wholesale work did not receive more
than from $3 to $8.c In the same year Shirley Dare, a correspond-
ent of the New York Tribune, made some inquiries among individual
sewing women in New York. Out of 25 women interviewed she
found that one received $5, seven $6, one $7, three $7.50, four $8,
four $9, four $12, and one $15.d
In Boston, according to Miss Phelps 's statement at a meeting in
1869, there were about 20,000 sewing women, about 8,000 of whom
did not earn over 25 cents per day.6 "The needlewomen's society,"
she said, "have been making inquiries on the subject and have
taken manufacturers' figures, which are always favorable to them-
selves. Girls are employed on Federal, Washington, and other
streets, in numbers of 40, 50, and 60 in a shop, at less than $3.50 a
week. Sewing-machine operators average $2.50 a week in those
shops. You can see them in those shops seated in long rows,
crowded together in a hot, close atmosphere, working at piecework,
30, 40, 60, or 100 girls crowded together, working at 20 and 25 cents
a day." Miss Phelps estimated that only about one-fourth of the
working women of Boston worked by the week, and that of these only
about one-tenth received over $3 a week.* The sum of $4 a week was
a Workingman's Advocate, January 29, 1870. Quoted from New York Times. The
Woman's Journal, Boston and Chicago, February 19, 1870.
& Woman's Journal, Boston and Chicago, June 10, 1871.
c Idem, February 26, 1870. Quoted from the New York Evening Post.
* See Table F, p. 263.
« Workingman's Advocate, May 8, 1869. In her testimony before the Massachusetts
legislative committee on hours of labor, also, Miss Phelps stated that thousands of
girls in "clothing stores" in Boston earned only 25 cents a day or less. (American
Workman, May 1, 1869.) Miss Phelps was herself a working woman.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 149
said to be the highest ever paid in tailoring and ready-made clothing
establishments.0 Another speaker, however, said that there were in
the city 18,205 needlewomen, 200 of them receiving over $12 a week
and the rest from $1.80 to $12, the average being $3 a week.a
"I have seen the time," said Aurora Phelps, "when I could not
buy the soap and fire to wash my clothes. It is not always that we
are improvident and shiftless. It is because our work is so fragmen-
tary; because we have not facilities for getting employment at remu-
nerative prices. Often when we go to the shop we have to wait one,
two, three hours for work to be given us. We work for half an hour,
an hour, two hours, and then have to wait again. When I was
younger girls were taught full trades. They made pants, coats, over-
coats, and then they learned to cut. Now one stitches the seam,
another makes the buttonholes, and another puts the buttons on.
And when the poor girl stitches up the seams and finds her work
slack she goes from shop to shop, perhaps for weeks, before she can
find the same kind of work. I have known a girl under such circum-
stances to go for a week on a 5-cent loaf of bread per day, or on that
amount of crackers.6
A little later one speaker before a working woman's convention in
Boston stated that she had known overalls to be given out for 5
cents a pair, at which price 20 cents could be earned in 10 hours.
Though the German tailors were said to be receiving $10 to $15 per
week for 15 or 18 hours7 labor, women in the same field of employ-
ment and for the same hours earned, it was said, only from $2.25 to
$7 per week. Custom shops, according to Miss Jennie Collins, gen-
erally paid good wages, but on ready-made work only starvation
prices were paid.c And women working for contractors Miss Aurora
Phelps had declared to be paid the poorest wages of al\.d
The skilled tailoresses, of course, earned somewhat higher wages
than the makers of shirts, overalls, and the cheaper grades of vests,
trousers, and coats. A correspondent of the Boston Post in 1870
said that in New York a first-class sewing machine operator could
earn $15 a week, though the majority did not earn half that.6
According to another statement, too, tailoresses in New York earned
from $6 to $10 a week/ In Boston in 1870 pantaloons that took
a day and a half to make were made for $1.75, but the pantaloon
and vest makers employed on this work (whose total earnings were
"American Workman, May 1, 1869. Testimony before Massachusetts Legislative
Committee on Hours of Labor.
b Workingman's Advocate, May 8, 1869.
c American Workman, May 29, 1869.
<* Idem, May 1, 1869.
« Quoted in the Woman's Journal, September 17, 1870.
/ American Workman, February 11, 1871. Quoted from the New York Star.
150 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
almost precisely the same) were said to be unemployed about half
of the year. The lowest price paid for board in Boston at this time,
it was said, and that in an attic having as many beds as it could hold,
was $4 per week, not including light, fire, or washing.0
Just as before the introduction of the sewing machine, too, the
prices charged were all out of proportion to the wages paid. The
New York Sun in 1868 told an instance of a woman who elaborately
embroidered an infant's cape, spending 14 days on the work, to re-
ceive as compensation only $4. The cape, it was said, the material
of which was worth $7, was afterwards sold by the merchant for $70.6
And at a meeting of the Sewing Machine Operators' Union of New
York in 1868 one woman testified that she had worked 72 hours on a
piece of work for which she was paid $3.75 and which, when placed
on sale, was priced at $85. The material, she said, could not have
cost more than $25. Another woman had made a suit of boy's
embroidered clothes, the materials of which cost about $5 and which
was sold for $30, and had been paid 9 shillings. Still another
had embroidered a chemise yoke and sleeves, the material of which
cost less than $1 and which sold for $5, and had been paid $l.c
Not only were the wages paid exceedingly low, but in many cases
even this pittance, on one excuse or another, was withheld. Some-
times it was said that the work was not satisfactory, sometimes
that payment would be made when the amount had become
sufficient, and sometimes other excuses and postponements forced
the poor sewing women, as has already been seen, to make repeated
trips at great cost of energy and time, in order to procure payment
for work performed. Finally, perhaps, they were obliged to abandon
the attempt and pocket their loss rather than continue to waste
their time in fruitless efforts.
This latter evil, the swindling of sewing women out of part of their
pay, was vigorously attacked by the Working Women's Protective
Union of New York. During the first few months of its existence,
this organization, with the assistance of several lawyers who volun-
teered their services, prosecuted "scores of employers" and com-
pelled them uto pay the hard-earned pittances due to working
women."d Nineteen such cases were prosecuted during the year
ending in February, 1867. Before March 31, 1868, 636 complaints
had been registered and the sum of $3,000 had been collected for the
claimants/
a The Revolution, January 20, 1870.
& Quoted in The Revolution, January 15, 1868.
c The Revolution, October 29, 1868.
d Daily Evening Voice, March 2, 1867. From Fourth Annual Report of the Work-
ing Women's Protective Union of New York.
« Workingman's Advocate, June 13, 1868.
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 151
The requirement that the sewing women should furnish their own
thread, which was said to have been first made when during the war
the price of spool cotton rose from 4 to 8 and 10 cents,0 was a com-
mon grievance.
Fines, too, were frequently the cause of complaint. A shirt
maker working for one of the principal factories in Chicago, for
instance, stated in a letter to the Workingman's Advocate that she
had been fined $1.80 for stitching a dozen collars for night shirts
"two threads" nearer the edge than the" prescribed quarter of an
inch.6
Such were the conditions of women's work and wages in the gar-
ment trades during the early years of the sewing-machine era.
Similar accounts of conditions during more recent years abound in
comparatively accessible sources of information, but the story
differs little from that here given of the earlier years. Wages have
remained practically at the subsistence point, the rise during the first
few years after the war being succeeded by a fall, so that by 1878
wages were little higher than they had been in 1860.c Since 1878,
while wages by the hour, day, or week have decreased in most cases
and remained constant in a few cases, and hours have been reduced
by legislation, there has been a great increase in the speed and
strain of work, which renders the industry more exhausting to its
employees.**
GOVEENMENT WORK AND THE SUBCONTRACT SYSTEM.
How much of the work for which these wages were paid was
done under the contract system it is impossible to say, but this
system, as used in the manufacture of army clothing, was the cause
of bitter complaint as early as 1863. Its immediate effect upon
the Philadelphia sewing women is illustrated by the fact that in
1863, while women who obtained their work direct from the Schuylkill
Arsenal received for making haversacks 12 J cents each, others
employed by a contractor received only 5 cents. Even at the
former price it was estimated that the women could not make more
than 37 cents a day or $2.25 a week.6
Less than a year later a Philadelphia paper / stated that even the
arsenal prices had fallen since the beginning of the war and that,
on an average, the wages of sewing women had been reduced 30 per
o Fincher's Trades' Review, April 2, 1864.
b Workingman's Advocate, June 13, 1874.
« Pope, The Clothing Industry in New York, University of Missouri Studies, Vol. I,
pp. 32-38.
d Industrial Commission Report, Vol. XV, p. 368.
« Fincher's Trades' Review, December 12, 1863.
/ Idem, October 1, 1864.
152 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
cent while prices had increased at least 100 per cent. "As an evi-
dence," said this paper, "of the fearful decrease of prices since the
war broke out, we append a statistical table of wages received for
work at the arsenal in 1861 and 1864 and the prices paid at the present
time by contractors:"
Arsenal .
1801.
Arsenal,
1864.
Contractors,
1864.
Shirts
§0 17),
$0 15
$0 08
Drawers .•
.12.1
.10
$0 07 arid 08
Infantry pants . . .
42|
27
17 and 20
Cavalry pants
60
60
98 and 30
Lined blouses
.45
.40
20
Unlined blouses
40
35
15 and 20
Covering canteens
.04
.02*
Cavalry jackets
1 l'?.\
1 00
75 and 80
Overalls
.25
.20
06
Bed sacks
20
20
07
A few months later the following table of prices paid by the con-
tractors and by the Government was given:0
Arsenal
prices.
Contract-
ors' prices.
Shirts
Cents.
18
Cents.
7
Drawers
13
7
Trousers
40
17 and 20
Blouses .
42
13 and 16
Cavalry jackets
120
40 and 50
Infantrv coats .
125
50 and 75
Great coats
90
40
The system, however, had evidently been adopted in private as
well as in public work and with the same results. In 1864 Fincher's
Trades' Review spoke of the subcontract system as "a new source
of oppression * * * visited upon the seamstresses." "Time
was/' wrote the editor, "when whole-hearted and magnanimous em-
ployers gave out work to women in their own establishments, and paid
remunerative prices ; but of late a set of soulless subcontractors have
sprung up, who contract for the entire work of an establishment,
rent a cheap room in the suburbs, procure a lot of sewing machines, and
employ young girls from 12 to 18 years of age, at just such prices as
they choose to pay." Twenty-five, 50, or 100 girls were crowded to-
gether in these workrooms. ' ' The proprietor," said Mr. Fincher, ' ' paid
the same prices to the subcontractor which he formerly paid to the
women, and was relieved of expense for bookkeepers and clerk hire. " b
"Middlemen" were again denounced in 1867 by a speaker before
a mass meeting in behalf of the New York Working Women's Pro-
tective Union. "They contract with women," he said, "to get
a Fincher's Trades' Review, January 28, 1865.
&Idem, May 14, 1864.
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 153
work done at starvation prices, and then sell it to the wholesale
dealers for five times the amount they paid for it. "a
Moreover, though the chief complaints were made against the
prices for Government work, and especially those offered by the
contractors on Government work, it was said that wages were even
lower on private work. A letter from "An American Working
Woman" in 1864 stated that while for making infantry pants women
received 20 cents, they received only 50 cents for making citizens'
pants and could make three or four pairs* of the former in the same
time as one of the latter. " Nine-tenths of the employees," she said,
" prefer Government work to that of citizens."6
Government contractors and subcontractors, however, were among
the worst sweaters of the time. The Daily Evening Voice, in review-
ing the work for 1864 of the Working Women's Protective Union of
New York,c cited the case of a soldier's wife who was making drawers
at 5} cents per pair for a Government contractor. They had to be
made by hand and 6 pairs was a good day's work, giving her at best
an income of 34J cents a day. But if the work did not please her
employers for any reason, real or fancied, they deducted 20 cents
per dozen from her wages — a custom among the less honorable
men in the business in order to increase their profits. A subcon-
tractor was arrested in Philadelphia in 1864 on the charge made by
several of his women employees of withholding their wages of "35
cents each for cavalry jackets. "d
By 1865 it was said that in Philadelphia the contractors had "so
persistently solicited the arsenal work ' ' that they had obtained " all
the work, except shirts, which have heretofore been given out to
aged women." A bundle of shirts, obtained at the expense of these
"poor old shirt makers" it was said, would yield, however, only $1.44
per week/ It was charged, too, that contracts for army clothing
were obtained from the arsenal only by political influence or liberal
bribes, and that these contractors "farmed out" the work "to the
lowest bidder. "d
In 1864 the women employed on Government work in Philadelphia
sent a memorial to Congress asking for an increase of wages/ In the
same year, too, the working women of New York appealed to the
a Daily Evening Voice, March 2, 1867.
& Fincher's Trades' Review, May 21, 1864.
c Daily Evening Voice, December 15, 1864.
<*Idem, December 30, 1864. Quoted from Fincher's Trades' Review.
« Fincher's Trades' Review, January 28, 1865.
/ Fincher's Trades' Review, May 7, 1864. In 1863 these women had held a public
protest meeting against an order discharging all who were not near relatives of soldiers.
(Fincher's Trades' Review, Aug. 8, 1863.)
154 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
Secretary of War for an increase of wages, saying that at the outbreak
of the war the prices paid "were barely sufficient to enable us to
obtain subsistence," but that since that time " women's labor has
been reduced more than 30 per cent," while there had been an
"unprecedented increase in all the necessaries of life." They asked
for an increase in "the price of female labor until it shall approxi-
mate to the price of living, ' ' and that the contract system be so modi-
fied " as to make it obligatory upon all contractors to pay Government
prices. "a Some 10,000 signatures are said to have been obtained
for this petition, and it was added that "thousands more would have
signed, but refused, alleging as a reason that they were fearful of
losing the small amount of work they were then getting from the
contractors."6
The subcontract system was also the subject of a memorial to
President Lincoln from the Cincinnati women engaged on Government
work. They declared themselves "willing and anxious to do the
work required by the Government * * * at the prices paid by
the Government," but stated that they were "unable to sustain life
for the prices offered by contractors. " They cited as an example that
the contractors were paid $1 .75 a dozen for making gray woolen shirts,
for which the women were paid only $1 a dozen. The same injustice,
they said, was practiced in the manufacture of all other articles.
"Under the system of direct employment of the operative by the
Government," they added, "we had no difficulty, and the Govern-
ment, we think, was served equally well."c
The Philadelphia working women employed in sewing for the Gov-
ernment finally sent a delegation to Washington, which waited upon
President Lincoln and obtained from him a request to the Quarter-
master-General that he would thereafter manage the supplies of
clothing in such a way as to give the women remunerative wages. d
In Boston the special relief branch of the New England Auxiliary
Association obtained Government contracts for clothing in order to
furnish work to soldiers' widows at a fair price. The sewing women
were given, it was said, not only the full benefit of the contract price,
but in some instances much more. About 900 or 1,000 women
were employed.6
No attention, however, appears to have been paid by the Govern-
ment to the suggestion early made by Fincher's Trades' Review /
a Fincher's Trades' Review, September 17, 1864.
b Daily Evening Voice, December 15, 1864.
c Idem, March 8, 1865. Fincher's Trades' Review, March 18, 1865. Reprinted in
Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. IX, pp. 72, 73.
d Fincher's Trades' Review, February 4, 11, 1865; Daily Evening Voice, January
28,* 1865.
« Daily Evening Voice, March 3, 1866.
/ Fincher's Trades' Review, May 14, 1864.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 155
that the United States commissary department lead in the elimina-
tion of the subcontractor by establishing "subagencies in different
parts of the city, where they would be accessible to the entire popu-
lation of working women/' and by making it "imperative upon the
contractor," whenever it was necessary to employ outside help, "to
pay the seamstresses arsenal wages. "a
THE HOME, THE SHOP, AND THE FACTORY. &
Though the garment trades are backward in their industrial
development, their history shows a distinct movement away from the
home, through the small shop, to the factory. For many years the
ready-made business, except for the cutting of garments, was almost
entirely a home industry. With the subcontract system came the
sweat shop. But for several years past there has been manifest a
distinct tendency away from the subcontract or sweating system
toward the factory system. In 1901 Prof. John R. Commons
reported c that, though 10 years before probably 90 per cent of
women's ready-made garments were made by people who worked
for contractors, at that time fully 75 per cent of such work had
passed into the hands of " manufacturers." The manufacture of
overalls, too, which was in the early years one of the most poorly
paid of the home trades, has now become, practically a factory
industry. Men's coats and overcoats are also increasingly a factory
product.
Minute division of labor and power applied to machinery have
aided in bringing about the success of the factory system as compared
with the small shop. Many of the small contractors' shops, however,
were long ago equipped with power-driven machines. Division and
organization of labor, therefore, aided on the one hand by the
economies of large-scale production and on the other by laws regu-
lating the sweating system must be held primarily responsible for
the movement toward the factory system in the garment trades.
a Fincher's Trades' Review, May 14, 1864. It was said that when in 1829 Mathew
Carey "applied to the 'authorities' at Washington for a, small advance on their nig-
gard wages paid to sewing women, he received for answer, that they could not interfere
in any matter that would tend to raise the rate of wages. " (Mechanics' Free Press,
Aug. 8, 1829.) The Secretary of War replied that "the subject is found to be one of
so much delicacy and is so intimately connected with the manufacturing interests
and the general prices of this kind of labor in the city of Philadelphia that the
department has not felt at liberty to interfere farther than to address a letter to the
commissary-general of purchase." (Quoted by Mathew Carey in "Public Charities
of Philadelphia, " Miscellaneous Pamphlets, Philadelphia, 1831.)
& For a full discussion of this topic see Men's Ready-Made Clothing, Volume II of
this report, p. 483 et seq.
c Industrial Commission Report, Vol. XV, p. 322.
156 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
OTHER CLOTHING AND SEWING TRADES.
MILLINERY, STRAW AND LACE GOODS.
Milliners engaged in custom work, like dressmakers, have always
been aristocrats among the clothing makers. The necessity for
skill and taste has softened the competitive struggle and raised
bargaining above the level of a mere struggle for animal existence.
The difficulties in the way of acquiring this skill and taste have,
however, enabled its possessors, not merely to establish for themselves
a- fairly advantageous industrial position, but to subdivide and dis-
tribute the work in such a way as to employ a large body of com-
paratively unskilled workers, who are engaged principally in the
preparation of materials for the custom workers. As in the garment
trades, the tendency of the millinery business has been away from
custom work, and toward subdivision of labor and wholesale manu-
facture. Even among the custom workers subdivision of labor, by
which skill was economized, early produced a class of workers similar
to the basters or buttonhole makers of the garment trades.
In New York, in 1845, milliners are said to have worked from 10
to 12 hours a day for wages of from $2.50 to $3 per week, only ua
good hand" commanding the latter price. They were divided into
two classes, " makers" and " trimmers," and, though wages were
about the same for both, the latter were more in demand and conse-
quently suffered less from unemployment. A year's apprenticeship
to the business was required for both, during which the girls, who were
generally very young, received no money wages, often, it was said, work-
ing overhours for their board and lodging. The New York Tribune
complained that during their apprenticeship they were kept regularly
at sewing, and were not taught " any thing in regard to gracefulness
of outline, harmony of colors, symmetry of form and general adapta-
tion * * * to each peculiar style of face," and that, consequently,
at the end of the year they were "not much better milliners than
when they began." a In the smaller custom shops, indeed, the
employers doubtless furnished then, as they do now, the greater part
of the skill and taste required in the business.
According to Table XI, women have furnished since 1850 over 95
per cent of the employees engaged in " millinery, custom work," and
the percentage has steadily increased. In the manufacture of
"millinery and lace goods," however, the proportion of women
employees, which was 85.1 per cent in 1905, appears, perhaps owing
to the census methods of inclusion or exclusion of various branches
of manufacture, to have decreased up to 1890 and then increased.
a New York Daily Tribune, September 16, 1845. Most of those engaged in the
business were said to be Americans, with a fair proportion of English and French.
CHAPTER III. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 157
Only in 1890, however, did the proportion of women fall below 80
per cent of the total number of employees.
The manufacture of lace was an important industry for women
early in the nineteenth century. Thus at Ipswich, Mass., in 1828,
there are reported to have been 500 women employed in lace manu-
facture, and in the same year the Rhode Island lace school at New-
port is said to have employed 500, a and in 1832, 700 women.6 In
Massachusetts, too, in 1831 more than 500 women were employed in
this industry.0 These women all worked at home, and lace making
probably supplied in part, at this period, the need for home work
created by the transfer of weaving to the factory.
The manufacture of straw goods, which was started by Miss
Betsey Metcalf, of Dedham, Mass., in 1789, was also for many years a
home industry of New England women, who made straw bonnets
first for their neighbors and then for the wholesale markets. At
first native materials were used, but later, when foreign-grown
materials, wliich were better in quality than the native, were
introduced, factories were established. As long as this was a home
industry it appears to have been carried on wholly by women, but in
the factories men were employed for part of the work of bleaching.
Women, however, still braided the straw.
In Massachusetts alone in 1827 there were reported to be 25,000
persons, nearly all females, engaged in the manufacture of straw hats,
etc.d This, however, must have been an exaggeration, for in 1837
there were reported only 13,311 " female hands" and no "male
hands."6 In 1824 a school was established at Baltimore " for the
instruction of poor girls in the various branches of straw plaiting. "f
The palm-leaf-hat manufacture, too, which commenced in 1826, was
soon an important industry in New England, principally in Massa-
chusetts. The hats, it was said, were "all made at the dwellings of
the inhabitants, by girls from 4 years old and upward. ''0 Near
« New York Evening Post, July 3, 1828.
& Niles' Register, January 21, 1832.
c Executive Documents, Twenty-second Congress, first session, Vol. I.
d Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. II, p. 285.
« Statistical Tables Exhibiting the Condition and Products of Certain Branches
of Industry in Massachusetts for the Year Ending April 1, 1837, p. 169 et seq. The
Documents Relative to the Manufactures of the United States, Executive Docu-
ments, Twenty-second Congress, first session, Vol. I (1832), however, reported over
15,000 women engaged in this business in Massachusetts, and in many towns the
number was not estimated, but it was simply reported that thousands of hats were
made. Probably the vast majority of the women who made hats did so only in their
leisure hours.
/ Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. II, p. 294. This
school was not self-sustaining.
9 Niles' Register, June 18, 1831, vol. 40, p. 281.
158 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
Springfield, Mass., where the business of plaiting straw was a great
industry in 1831, some women were said to have made ait it $2 a day,
but most of them made only $1 a day.0 Twenty-five cents a yard
was the piece rate. 6
As late as 1850 a great share of the manufacture of straw bonnets
is said to have been home work carried on by country women. Large
establishments in New York and Boston had their agents continually
traveling among the farmhouses distributing the straw and models
and collecting the finished bonnets. In some districts it was said
that all the females were engaged in this work.c
By 1835, however, the making of straw hats and bonnets was no
longer exclusively a household occupation. One establishment in
Boston in that year, for instance, is said to have employed constantly
300 females. d In 1834, too, we hear of one Boston establishment
which employed about a hundred women in weaving straw. e And
in 1835 an advertisement appeared in a New York paper for "40 first-
rate straw-bonnet sewers" who Were wanted at "Mrs. Oliver's straw-
bonnet manufactory, 271 Bowery."/
Just what were the hours and wages in these early factories is not
known, but in 1845 women straw braiders in New York are said to
have worked from 7 in the morning to 7 in the evening "with no
intermission save to swallow a hasty morsel," and to have received
wages, when fully employed, of from $2 to $2.50 per week. "They
have," said the New York Tribune, "no rooms of their own, but board
with some poor family, sleeping anyhow and anywhere. For these
accommodations they pay $1.50 per week, some of the worst and
filthiest boarding houses, however, charging as low as $1 per week."0
By 1858 the manufacture of straw hats for the southern market
had become a somewhat important industry in Philadelphia, one
establishment employing about 200 persons, mostly females. The
average weekly wages for women in the industry were $4.50, and for
men $7.50.ft But in Boston in 1869 there were said to be from one
to two hundred women making palm-leaf hats for men at 8 cents each
after paying for the material. One woman, it was said, had worked
at the business a week and earned only 87 cents.1'
« Niles' Register, July 2, 1831.
bldem, August 27, 1831.
cMooney, Nine Years in America, 1850, p. 16.
d Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. II, p. 393.
« New York Mechanics' Magazine, April 19, 1834. Quoted from the Bunker Hill
Aurora.
/New York Transcript, January 3, 1835.
9 New York Daily Tribune, August 19, 1845.
AFreedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures, 1858, pp. 281, 413.
4 American Workman, May 1, 1869; Workingman's Advocate, May 8, 1869.
CHAPTER TTT. CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 159
In the sixties, machines for sewing straw braid were introduced,
but the industry still remained practically in the hands of women.
The braiding of straw has always been a hand process, aided by a
few simple tools. The unhealthy nature of the business, by reason
of the fine dust in the handling of dyed braids and the heavy work on
the machines, was apparent by 1884. a
ABTIFICIAL FLOWERS.
In the manufacture of artificial flowers, which has been very little
affected by industrial changes, the conditions of work, as far back as
1845, when the industry was new, were very similar to those of to-day.
In 1845 the Tribune estimated that from 1,500 to 2,000 girls were
employed in this occupation in New York City.6 Some of them,
who had served a five years' apprenticeship and had shown particu-
lar skill, could, if constantly employed, earn $3.50 per week, but
the principal part of the work was done "by young girls from 11
to 13 years of age, 'apprentices/ as they are termed, who receive 75
cents, and a few $1 per week." "These 'apprentices/" said the
Tribune, "as soon as they are out of their time are told that there is
no more work for them, and their places are supplied by fresh recruits
who are taken and paid, of course, as apprentices. Every few days
you may notice in the papers an advertisement something like this:
' Wanted — 50 young girls as apprentices to the artificial-flower-making
business.' These portend that a number of girls have become jour-
neywomen, and are consequently to be pushed out of work to make
room for apprentices, who will receive but 75 cents or $1 per week."c
HATS AND CAPS.
As early as 1831 there were reported to be 3,000 women and 15,000
men and boys engaged in the manufacture of wool and fur hats in this
country. d And in Massachusetts in 1837 there were 556 "male
0 Fifteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1884,
p. 74.
b It is difficult to reconcile this statement with the figures in Table XI, p. 251, which
give 372 women in the manufacture of artificial flowers in the entire United States
in 1850, these women constituting 85.7 per cent of all the employees in the industry.
Even in 1870 there appear to have been only about 2,000 employees reported under
"artificial feathers, flowers, and fruits" and "feathers, cleaned, dressed, and dyed,"
and only 54.8 per cent of these were women. The percentage of women employees is
very much higher, doubtless because of different classification, in other years, but
even in 1880 there were reported only 3,577 women in the industry. In 1871, more-
over, an account in the New York Star (quoted in the American Workman, February
11, 1871) gave the number of artificial flower makers in New York City as 1,500 and
their average wages as $5 per week.
cNew York Daily Tribune, August 19, 1845.
<* Journal of the Proceedings of the Friends of Domestic Industry, New York, October
26, 1831. Reports of committees, p. 39.
160 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
hands" and 304 " female hands" employed in making hats.a The
proportion of women to other employees engaged in the making of
"hats and caps, not including wool hats" has steadily increased
since 1880, but appears, probably owing to changes in classification,
to have decidedly decreased since 1850. b
Division of labor early made women and girls trimmers of men's
hats, and their wages for this work usually appear to have been
higher than for the trimming of women's hats. One manufacturer of
wool hats in Danbury, Conn., in 1841, employed five men as makers and
two women as trimmers.6 In 1845, after a regular apprenticeship,
which appears not to have been long, the girls in New York are said
to have earned from $1 to $1.50 per day, at piece prices which ranged
from 8 to 12 J cents per hat, the latter generally being paid for fine
work. In the country, at the same time, the usual price was 8 cents. d
In 1851, again, trimming men's hats was said to be one of the most
profitable branches of industry open to women in New York, the
average wages being $4.50 a week, and some hat trimmers making
$1 a day.*
About 1845 a machine for forming fur-hat bodies was patented
which caused a division of labor, and girls were introduced to feed
the fur to the machine/ Later the sewing machine was introduced
for binding hats, which had formerly been done by hand. As in
most other industries, however, the sewing machine was usually
operated by women.
One of the most poorly paid industries in which women have been
engaged, however, has been cap making. From the very beginning
this has been, in the broad sense of the term, a sweated industry.
In 1845 there were said to be in New York City between one and two
thousand women cap makers who earned on an average 2 shillings
a day, and many not more than 18 pence. "They are thrust," said
the New York Tribune,^ "into a dark back room in a second, third,
fourth, or fifth story chamber, 30 or 40 together, and work from
sunrise to sundown." A manufacturer of caps in New York stated
a Statistical Tables Exhibiting the Condition and Products of Certain Branches of
Industry in Massachusetts for the Year Ending April 1, 1837, p. 169 et seq.
6 See Table XI, p. 253.
« Bailey and Hill, History of Danbury, Conn., p. 224. Until about 1817, women
carded all the wool for hats by hand. (Idem, pp. 241,242.) And in the early years
of the industry women were employed in pulling out the coarse outer hairs from the
skins from which the fur was afterwards cut by men preparatory to its use in the
manufacture of fur hats. (William T. Brigham, Baltimore Hats, 1890, p. 64.)
<*New York Daily Tribune, November 7, 1845.
e Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
/Bailey and Hill, History of Danbury, Conn., pp. 224, 225,
0New York Daily Tribune, August 19, 1845.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 161
in the same year that, without advertising, he had in one week 200
more applicants for work than he could furnish with employment.0
Another statement was to the effect that the fur-cap makers of New
York could not make, by 18 hours' work, over 30 cents a day,6 and
still another that the makers of men's and boys' caps, by working
from 15 to 18 hours a day, made only from 14 to 25 cents.6
One of the evils especially complained of in this business was the
dishonesty of some manufacturers who advertised for cap makers,
gave out work to be paid for on approval, and when it was returned
refused payment on the ground that the work was not satisfactory. d
One writer told of a case in which a man gave out on >trial 2 dozen
caps each to 47 girls and not one of these received a cent for her labor. e
This evil appears to have been alarmingly prevalent for a number
of years. In 1849 a writer in the New York Tribune asserted that
a large part of the glazed and cloth cap manufacturing business
of New York was carried on by merchants who advertised for women
to work on caps, promising them permanent employment and punc-
tual payment, and, when the work was done, told them that the
establishment paid only once a fortnight or once a month, that the
bill was too small, or that the caps were badly made/ Again in 1850
an Irish traveler, in his description of America, warned Irish girls of
this custom. 0
By 1851, when there were said to be about 5,000 women cap makers
in New York, the Jews had almost monopolized the trade. In one
room of a New York establishment it was recorded in that year that
60 girls were employed, while others took work home cut out and
ready for sewing.^ Wages were exceedingly low. In 1843 some
Philadelphia cap makers went on strike because they could not make
on ordinary work over 37 cents per day.* And in August, 1859, the
Monthly Record of the Five Points House of Industry gave an account
of a visit by the superintendent to a poor widow who was making
boys' cloth caps " trimmed with braid, and bow, and buttons, lined
o Young America, New York, April 12, 1845.
& Workingman's Advocate, March 15, 1845.
c New York Daily Tribune, August 14, 1845.
d Idem, September 10, 1845.
«Burdett, Wrongs of American Women. Reviewed in the Voice of Industry,
September 25, 1845. This account is cast in the form of a simple story, similar to
"The Long Day" of the present generation, and describes the distressing conditions
of the working women in New York in 1845. Mr. Burdett is said to have informed
himself personally of all the facts stated in his book.
/ New York Daily Tribune, August 7, 1849.
ff Mooney, Nine Years in America, 1850, pp. 89, 90, 92.
fc Burns, Life in New York, 1851. The number of women cap makers in New York
must have been greatly exaggerated.
* Report of the Bureau of Industrial Statistics, Pennsylvania, 1880-81, p. 269.
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol 9 11
162 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
with glazed muslin and wash leather, and with patent-leather front,"
for 2 shillings per dozen or 2 cents a piece. She said that she used
to receive 2 shillings and 6 pence per dozen, but that the price had
been reduced.0
The wages of women cap makers in Philadelphia in 1858, however,
were said to be about $4 per week.6 And in 1871 there were in New
York, according to one account, 2,000 women cap makers earning
from $6 to $8 per week. c
A home industry, comparatively little influenced by the sewing
machine, cap making was for many years perhaps the very lowest of
the clothing industries. The work has practically always been by
the piece, and in 1871 it was stated that in Boston women, working in
shops, carried home materials and worked two or three hours addi-
tional in the evening. d But in 1872 it was added that all were ex-
pected to work in the shop during the regular hours.6 Gradually,
however, division of labor and the use of power-driven machinery have
made the manufacture of caps a shop or factory industry.
UMBRELLA SEWERS.
As shown in Table XI (page 253), in every census year except 1890
more than half of the employees engaged in the manufacture of
umbrellas and canes have been women. In the earlier years, when
canes were not included, the proportion was considerably higher.
The work of women has always been principally the sewing together
of the pieces of the umbrella covering, and umbrella sewers have been
merely one wing of the great army of sewing women. Though shops
in which men and women were employed in separate rooms were
early common, much of the work was done at home, as in the other
sewing trades.
The wages of umbrella and parasol sewers have always been low,
for, though some skill and experience is required on the higher grades
of work, apprentices can learn in a short time to do the common work.
In 1836, when the wages of umbrella sewers in New York were
reduced from 14 to 10 cents on each umbrella, it was stated that at
the reduced rate the girls could obtain "only half of a subsistence. "'
The average earnings of parasol sewers in New York in 1845 are said
to have been 25 cents a day, though some girls earned as high as $5
to $8 per week.0 The New York Sun mentioned the case of a widow
a Quoted in Penny, Think and Act, 1869, p. 89.
&Freedley, Philadelphia and its Manufactures, 1858, p. 281.
c American Workman, February 11, 1871. Quoted from the New York Star.
d Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1871, p. 209.
« Idem, 1872, p. 77.
/Public Ledger, December 1, 1836.
g New York Daily Tribune, March 15, 1845.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 163
with three children, who at sewing parasols and umbrellas could not
earn by the closest application more than 25 cents per day.a
A little later the New York Tribune said: "At the prices usually
paid, the girls at this trade can make, some of them 20 shillings, some
$3, and some who are extraordinarily smart, $4 and $5 a week.
There are many who do not earn 20 shillings. These are to be found
chiefly among that class who work on the commonest umbrellas, made
of coarse muslins, cane frames, tin tips, etc." For covering with
gingham the price was 10 cents for a 28-inch, 11 cents for a 30-inch,
and 12 cents for a 32-inch umbrella. For covering with silk 11 cents
was paid for the smallest size, 12 cents for the medium, and 13 cents
for the largest, and for covering with common muslin 7 cents, 8 cents,
and 9 cents. On parasols the work was said to require greater skill
and expertness, and some girls could not earn as much as on umbrellas.6
The hours in the shops at that time were usually 10 a day, and the
girls who worked at the trade were generally Americans, with a few
Germans and Irish. When the work was done at home the hours
were doubtless longer. In many places the work was said to be
regular throughout the year, but in others girls were employed to
prepare for the auctions alone, and were discharged when the work was
done. Girls under 15 or 16 were seldom employed, as a good deal of
strength and skill were required to make the covers fit nicely.6
In 1851 umbrella sewers in New York are said to have made from
$2.50 to $3 a week.c But two years later the New York Tribune, in
investigating the needlewomen of New York, found that, while in
summer the earnings of the parasol stitchers were about $2.50 a week,
in winter when on umbrella work they earned only about $1.50 a
week.d In Philadelphia in 1858 there were said to have been more
than a hundred places where parasols and umbrellas were made,
though there were only four or five large establishments. The manu-
facture employed directly, it was said, about 1,500 persons, and
indirectly, in all of its branches, about 2,500. A large proportion of
the employees were females, and their earnings averaged from $2 to
$5 per week.*
By 1863 the sewing machine had reduced the piece rate paid
umbrella sewers to from 6 to 8 cents per umbrella, and it was said
that "by working steadily from 5 o'clock in the morning till 12 at
night they could finish a dozen umbrellas per day. They had to pay,
° Quoted in the Workingman's Advocate, March 15, 1845.
& New York Daily Tribune, September 17, 1845.
c Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
^ New York Daily Tribune, June 8, 1853.
«Freedley, Philadelphia and Ite Manufactures, 1858, pp. 390-392.
164 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
however, out of their own pockets for all the thread and needles used
by them. Generally their employers furnished them with these
articles at a stated price, the amount for which was deducted from
their wages, leaving them after six days' hard work, from early morn-
ing till midnight, $3 or $4."a According to another account, parasols
and umbrellas were made in New York in 1863 for 50 cents a dozen,
and eight could be made in a day.6 In 1867, too, the low wages
paid umbrella and parasol sewers were complained of before a mass
meeting in behalf of the Working Women's Protective Union of New
York.'
In 1870 a cut in wages of from 30 to 35 per cent resulted in a strike
of 2,000 parasol and umbrella sewers of New York and the formation
of a union. d At that time their wages for covering cotton umbrellas
2 feet long were 6£ cents, for large umbrellas nearly 3 feet long, 11^
cents, and higher prices for silk umbrellas and parasols. To cover
one of the small cotton umbrellas at 6^ cents required three-quarters
of an hour. When work was lively, which was only about four
months in the year, it was said that an average of $8 a week could be
earned, but at other times the wages averaged scarcely $5 a week.
Though in 1845 it was said that apprentices could learn in a week or
so, at this time a preparation of over a month, it was said, was required
for the common work and of three or four months for proficiency in
the higher grades/
COLLARS AND CUFFS.
The manufacture of collars and cuffs was begun at Troy, N. Y.,
about 1825, and from the first most of the work, except the cutting,
was done by women, at first entirely and even yet largely in their
homes. The first manufacturer of collars was the keeper of a small
dry goods store in Troy, who employed the wives and daughters of his
neighbors and paid them in merchandise. The manufacture of cuffs
and shirts was added in 1845, and for a time prior to the introduc-
tion of the sewing machine the manufacturers were unable to fill their
orders on account of the lack of skilled operators/ But the intro-
duction of the sewing machine enormously increased the output and
the possibilities of the business and effected a revolution similar to
that in the manufacture of ready-made clothing.
The use of sewing machines run by steam power, which was common
in all the large collar and cuff manufacturing establishments in Troy
<* Fincher's Trades' Review, October 17, 1863.
& Idem, November 21, 1863.
c Daily Evening Voice, March 2, 1867.
^ Workingman's Advocate, February 12; April 16, 1870. American Workman,
February 26, 1870.
«The Revolution, February 24, 1870.
/Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, p. 309, 310.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 165
as early as 1872, and the division of labor, have both tended to hasten
the introduction of the factory system in the collar and cuff industry.
As early as 1873 the Troy factories were said to have employed 2,000
girls.0 Some of the various operations,, however, were, at that time,
regularly carried on in the homes of the neighborhood, and this has
never entirely ceased. But the comparative concentration of the
workers has long made organization more common in this industry
than in most of the sewing trades.6
BUTTONS.
The manufacture of buttons is an industry quite different in char-
acter from the sewing trades. In colonial times, however, the cover-
ing of buttons was a somewhat important home occupation of women.
Though in 1820 the imperfect census figures give only 36 men, 8 women,
and 22 "boys and girls" engaged in the button industry,6 by 1832 the
manufacture of buttons and combs appears to have employed nearly
a thousand women in Connecticut and Massachusetts. d Soon after-
wards machinery for covering buttons was introduced. In 1837,
however, there were reported in Massachusetts only 21 women and 42
men engaged in the manufacture of metal buttons and 190 women
and 254 men engaged in the manufacture of combs.6 According to
Table XI, the manufacture of buttons employed 621 women in 1850,
and women have constituted since that date not far from half of the
total number of employees engaged in the business. By 1870, when
women were said to be engaged in the manufacture of all kinds of
buttons/ the business had become practically a factory industry.
The wages of women button makers in Connecticut in 1860 were
about $3 per week and in 1887 about $6.38 per week.0
GLOVES.
The first gloves made in America were made in 1760, and in 1809
the manufacture of gloves in commercial quantities began at Johns-
town, N. Y. Gloversville was founded in 1816, and in 1821 the total
product of the two places was 4,000 dozens of gloves and mittens.*
Practically from the beginning of the wholesale manufacture of
a Workingman's Advocate, December 27, 1873.
b See History of Women in Trade Unions, Volume X of this report, pp. 106, 107.
c American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223.
d Executive Documents, Twenty-second Congress, first session, Vol. I.
e Statistical Tables Exhibiting the Condition and Products of Certain Branches of
Industry in Massachusetts for the Year Ending April 1, 1837, p. 169 et seq.
/ The Revolution, March 24, 1870.
9 Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor,
1895, p. 524.
* Glove Workers' Journal, April, 1906, p. 49.
166 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
gloves in this country the work was divided and the sewing given out to
women who worked at home. The cutting was generally done by
mena in shops and later in factories, and then the materials were
distributed by the manufacturers to the women of the surrounding
region, to be collected again after they had sewed together the various
parts. This division of labor was early established, and was not
materially altered by the introduction of the machine and later of the
factory system with machines driven by steam power.
At first, of course, the sewing was done by hand, but in 1852 the sew-
ing machine was introduced into the glove manufacture.6 The first
machines used were heavy and cumbersome, but in 1856 a machine was
introduced to make some grades of light work throughout, and soon
afterwards the sewing machine became domesticated and the work
was carried on by the women in their homes as before. There was,
however, one exception. The wax-thread machine has never been,
to any considerable extent, operated by women — and has been
essentially a factory machine. Gradually, too, the factory system
has encroached upon home work in the glove-making industry. But
even yet, the sewing of gloves is, in the great glove-making centers of
Gloversville and Johnstown, N. Y., to a certain extent home work.
Many of the large factories there have delivery teams to distribute
and collect the materials.
The economy of minute subdivision of labor, especially in high-
priced work, has, however, caused the growth of the factory system
at the expense of the domestic system. The introduction of steam
power for running machines, which occurred about 1875,c has also
assisted the growth of the factory system. In the factories the cut-
ting and preparation of the skin is done by men, and men generally
operate the heavy machines for wax-thread work and palming, and
usually turn the gloves. The rest of the work, divided minutely into
special operations, has long been done, without much change of condi-
tions, by women. In some localities, as at Gloversville, these women,
even when working in factories, have always been required to own
their machines and rent power of the manufacturers — a survival of
the domestic system. In other places, however, as in Chicago, where
the union is strong, this custom has been abolished.
Glove making has always been piecework and, though the industry
is comparatively backward in its development, conditions have been
very similar to those of the early years of the boot and shoe making
industry.
"The first manufacturer of gloves in commercial quantities in Johnstown is said,
however, to have employed farmers' daughters to cut the gloves at his store and then
to have distributed them to the farmers' wives to be sewed.
& Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, p. 784.
c Idem, p. 796; see also pp. 785 and 795.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 167
BOOT AND SHOE MAKING.
PERIOD OF HOME WORK.
It was division of labor which first brought women into the boot
and shoe making industry. The introduction of machinery, indeed,
later drove large numbers of them out of the business for a time.
Types of machinery were soon evolved, however, which made again
profitable a division of labor which could utilize the labor of women,
and their restoration to the industry followed.
About 1795 or earlier, side by side with the development of the
wholesale trade in boots and shoes, shoemakers or cordwainers, as
they were called, began to hire their fellows and to gather them into
shops where a rough division of labor was practiced. Soon after-
wards they began to send the uppers out to women to be stitched and
bound. From that time until the introduction of the sewing machine
the binding of shoes manufactured for the wholesale market was
practically a woman's industry, carried on at home. Localities
differed largely, however, in the extent of the employment of women.
In Massachusetts the shoe binders appear to have been exclusively
women as early as 1810, but in Philadelphia, which was also a large
shoe-manufacturing center, the trade remained in the hands of men
until much later. A writer in the Philadelphia Mechanics' Free Press
in 1829 spoke of the employment of women in shoe making as
" derogatory to their sex."a
In general, however, by 1830, and in many localities earlier, the
manufacture of shoes was divided into two parts — the work of the
men in small shops and the work of the women in their homes. By
1837 the shoe binders of Lynn not only bound the edging but did all
the inside and lighter kinds of sewing.6
There were, however, two more or less roughly marked stages hi
women's work at shoe binding. In the first stage the family was the
industrial unit, the man shoemaker being assisted by his wife and
daughters in the part of the work which they could easily perform —
the sewing. Even when the shoemaker worked for a "boss," he
brought home his materials and turned over the work of binding to
the women of the family. Gradually, however, as the business
developed, it became customary for the "boss" himself to give out
the shoes to be bound directly to the women. The division of labor
remained the same, but it was no longer controlled by the shoemaker,
but by the "boss." The women, too, instead of having their work
and pay lumped with that of the head of the family — instead of being
merely helpers without economic standing — now dealt directly with
the employer and definitely entered the industrial field.
o Mechanics' Free Press, August 8, 1829.
b Lynn Record, September 13, 1837.
168 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAENEES — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
In 1810 the total annual earnings of the female shoe binders of
Lynn are said to have reached $50, 000. a Twenty years later, how-
ever, their total earnings were given as only $60,000 annually.6
As for the number and proportion of women employed in the
industry in these early years, c the first trustworthy figures are for
Massachusetts in 1837, when 23,702 "male hands" and 15,366, or
nearly 40 per cent, "female hands" were reported to be engaged in
the manufacture of boots and shoes in that State. d But in Lynn, as
early as 1829, there are said to have been employed in binding and
trimming shoes some 1,500 women, approximately as many women
as men being engaged in the business.* And during 1831 there were
said to have been employed in the manufacture of shoes in Lynn
1,741 males and 1,775 females, at an average wage for both sexes of
41 cents per day. The large proportion of females employed was
accounted for by the fact that no boots except for ladies and children
were manufactured at Lynn/
It must be remembered, in considering these early statistics, that
the women employed in binding shoes worked irregularly in the
intervals of their household duties and that, as a result, a larger pro-
portion of women to men workers was required, and their actual rate
of wages was correspondingly higher than their earnings. Nearly all
of the working women in Lynn at this time were shoe binders. In
1834 the shoe-binding business there was said to have "nullified
almost every other species of female labor," and it was complained
that "it is quite out of the question nowadays for any of the females
to live out to do housework."?
At Brockton, and other places where men's boots and shoes were
made, moreover, women were early taught the art of pegging and
were employed in considerable numbers in this work.A Even after
a Newhall, Centennial Memorial of Lynn, p. 63.
& Mechanics' Press, Utica, March 13, 1830; Niles' Register, June 18, 1831.
c According to the figures given in the untrustworthy manufacturing census of 1820
there were engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes in the entire United States
860 men, 150 "boys and girls," and 105 women, or about 9 per cent women.
(American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223, 291-297.) It is probable that
the women shoe binders working at home were omitted.
d Statistical Tables Exhibiting the Condition and Products of Certain Branches of
Industry in Massachusetts for the Year Ending April 1, 1837, p. 169 et seq.
< Lewis, History of Lynn, pp. 253, 254.
/ Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, February 28, 1832. According to the
reports given in the documents relative to the manufactures in the United States,
Executive Documents, Twenty-second Congress, first session, Vol. I, pp. 224-235,
there were 1,444 men, 313 boys under 16 years of age, and 1,500 women and girls
engaged in the manufacture of shoes in Lynn, in 1831. At Haverhill in the same year
562 men, 128 boys under 16 years of age, and 249 women were reported to be engaged
in the manufacture of boots and shoes. (Idem, pp. 220, 221.)
g Essex Tribune, Lynn (Mass.), January 4, 1834.
& Kingman, History of Brockton, p. 682.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 169
shoe-pegging machines were introduced girls operated the smaller
machines which did the fine work.a
The bootmaking industry in New York in 1845 was described as
divided into three branches — crimping, fitting, and bottoming. Of
these, fitting, which consisted of sewing the boot legs together, putting
in the lining and straps, and generally making the boots ready for
bottoming, was generally done by women and children at home,
though in some establishments it was said to have been "exclusively
attended to by males." 6
Women's wages in the boot and shoe industry during this domestic
period of labor were much lower in the cities than in the small shoe-
manufacturing towns like Lynn. According to the Rev. Ezra Stiles
Ely, the wages of women shoe binders in New York and Philadelphia
in 1830 were inadequate for their support.0 And in 1835 the wages
of women shoe binders in New York were said to have been, when
they were paid the price promised, about 48 cents a day, out of which
they were obliged to find silk, thread, and needles, leaving a balance
of about 44 cents a day. But many employers, instead of paying
6 shillings d a dozen as promised, paid but 72 cents, "thus plainly
pocketing 4 cents on a dollar of that which honestly belonged to the
binder." e And in 1853 the binding of children's shoes in New York
is said to have been paid for at the rate of two pairs for 3 cents or 18
cents a dozen pairs, and full-size shoes at the rate of 5 cents a pair
or 4 shillings 6 pence a dozen. Working from 14 to 17 hours a day,
an expert hand could net $2.40 per week. From this amount the
cost of light and fuel was to be deducted. This was said, however, to
be higher than the average price paid hundreds of girls and women
in New York/ A little later it was added that, though the average
wages of boot and shoe binders in New York were higher than of
tailoresses, there were many who could not earn over $1.50 per week.0
At Lynn, however, the wages of women shoe binders were at first
comparatively high. In his Sketches of LynnA Mr. Johnson says
that when the " gaiter boot" first came into fashion the price of
binding ranged from 17 to 25 cents a pair and "a smart woman could
bind four pah's a day, and sometimes even more." In 1833, how-
« Workingman's Advocate, December 4, 1875.
& New York Daily Tribune, September 5, 1845.
c Delaware Free Press, February 27, 1830. Quoted by Mathew Carey in his letter
"To the Printer of the Delaware Advertiser."
d A shilling in New York at that time was equal to 12^ cents.
« The Man, June 19, 1835. See History of Women in Trade Unions, Volume X of
this report, p. 44, for an account of a strike for 8 shillings a dozen for binding
"southern slippers," and "other work in proportion."
/ New York Daily Tribune, May 27, 1853.
0Idem, JuneS, 1853.
& Johnson, Sketches of Lynn, or the Changes of Fifty Years, p. 338.
170 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
ever, the wages of the Lynn shoe binders were being reduced, and
early in the next year this fact was the cause of a striked One of
the chief grounds of complaint, moreover, appears to have been that
they were not paid in " ready money" but in orders on dry goods
stores.6 In 1837 and 1838, however, the wages of women shoe
binders in Massachusetts are reported to have been from $2.50 to
$3. 50 per week. c
In 1842, when of the 40,000 women employed in manufacturing
industries in Massachusetts, 15,000 were said to be engaged in the
manufacture of shoes, the hardship to these women if wages were
reduced or if they were thrown out of employment was used by the
manufacturers as one of the arguments for a tariff on shoes and
leather goods. "They cannot subsist/' said the manufacturers, "if
compelled to work in competition with the laboring females of Europe,
who receive from 4 to 6 cents per day for their services. Men, when
driven from one employment, may seek it in another; and if work can
not be had at home, they may go abroad. If it can not be obtained
on the land, it may be found on the sea. But it is not so with women.
They are far more dependent and helpless; and when thrown out of
employment, are involved in inevitable distress and suffering. "d
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. '
With the introduction of the sewing machine soon after 1850,* there
began a new era — a revolution in the shoemaking business. Pre-
viously the only semblance of a factory in the industry was the shop
of the " manufacturer " where the material was cut, and from which
it was distributed to the shoemakers and binders. As late, moreover,
as 1855 an article appeared in a Boston paper which said that the
factory system was not needed in the manufacture of boots and shoes,
and described the plan under which the work was even then exten-
sively carried on. The leather, it was said, was cut in central es-
tablishments, and then distributed to the shoemakers who carried it
home, sometimes many miles, to be made up. Thus the business was
widely distributed/
Even the advent of the sewing machine failed to do away entirely
with home work. For, as the machines became a demonstrated suc-
<* Lynn Record, January 1, 1834.
& Essex Tribune, January 4, 1834.
c Sixteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor,
1885, pp. 270, 272.
d Proceedings of the Convention of the Manufacturers, Dealers, and Operatives in the
Shoe and Leather Trade in the State of Massachusetts, March 2, 1842, pp. 70, 71.
« The first machine used in Lynn was introduced in 1852, and an expert came from
Philadelphia to instruct the first operator, who was a woman. (Johnson, Sketches of
Lynn, p. 16.)
/ Kingman, History of Brockton, p. 683.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 171
cess, they were simplified and reduced in price until they found their
way into the household, so that, on certain kinds of goods, the old cus-
tom of home work continued on side by side with the new factory labor
of women shoe binders. In 1858 boot and shoe making was said to be
still mainly a home industry hi Philadelphia, employ ing about 5,000
men and 2,000 women — the latter, who were not " fully employed,"
at an average wage of about $100 a year. " Since the introduction of
sewing machines," it was said, "the manufacture of gaiter uppers has
become a distinct branch, and gives employment to hundreds of
females. "a
The introduction of the sewing machine, however, between 1855 and
1865, caused an almost complete transformation in the boot and
shoe making industry. Small "stitching shops" equipped with the
new machines were at first opened. In Lynn these shops were some-
times small buildings standing by themselves, but more frequently the
manufacturers fitted up rooms in the buildings where the men
worked.6 In 1864, the Lynn (Mass.) Reporter c called attention to
"the quiet, steady revolution that is going on in the business of shoe-
making, and particularly as that business is conducted in Lynn.
Previous to the introduction of the original sewing machines," it said,
' ' which are now universally used for the binding and stitching of the
uppers, but little or no improvement or even change had been made
in the manufacture of shoes. * * * After a time women's nimble
fingers were found inadequate to the demand, and sewing machines
soon transformed the old-fashioned 'shoe binder' into a new and
more expansive class of 'machine girls' whose capacity for labor was
only limited by the capabilities of the machines over which they pre-
sided. * * * This was the beginning of the new era. " The same
article spoke of the rapid progress in the introduction of machinery
that had been made within the past year or two, which had made it
almost possible to say that hand work had already become the excep-
tion and machine work the rule.
The women did not, however, after the introduction of the factory
system, succeed in retaining their work as completely as they had done
in the textile industries. The machines were heavy and difficult to
operate, especially the waxed thread sewing machine which was intro-
duced about 1857,d and, as a result, were largely operated by men.
The first result of the introduction of machinery in boot and shoe
making was, therefore, a decided falling off in the proportion of
women employed. In 1850, in the manufacture of boots and shoes,
31.3 per cent of the employees, in 1860 only 23.2 per cent of the
« Freedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures, 1858, p. 188.
& Johnson, Sketches of Lynn, or the Changes of Fifty Years, p. 340.
c Quoted in Fincher's Trades' Review, March 26, 1864.
<* See Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, p. 756.
172 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
employees, and in 1870 only 14.1 per cent of the employees were
women. By 1900, however, the proportion of women had risen to
33.0 per cent, higher than in 1850, when all " female hands," regard-
less of age, were included. a In 1905, moreover, the proportion of
women was a little over 33 per cent.
The decrease in the proportion of women to men engaged in the
industry should not, however, be attributed wholly to the displace-
ment of women by men in stitching. "Women still to a considerable
extent were shoe binders. But the first machines used in the indus-
try were for use exclusively upon the woman's part of the work. It
was not until 1860 that the McKay machine caused as great a revo-
lution in the work of the shoemaker as the stitching machine had
caused in the work of the binder. The productive power of the
binder, therefore, was for a time increased out of all proportion, as
previously measured, to the productive power of the shoemaker, who
was meanwhile aided only by minor improvements. The number of
hands required in binding was accordingly decreased in proportion
to the number required in other parts of the work. Similar read-
justments have necessarily occurred in many other industries, but
few have been made so conspicuous by the division of labor between
the sexes.
It must be borne in mind, moreover, in considering these figures,
that before the introduction of the factory system, which immedi-
ately followed that of the sewing machine, the women in the industry
were home workers and few of them gave their entire time to binding
shoes. A larger number, therefore, were required to accomplish a
given amount of work than would have been needed under the factory
system, even without the aid of machines.
As for the restoration of women to their former position of impor-
tance in the industry, it has been occasioned by three factors —
improvements in machinery, which have reduced the amount of mus-
cular strength required; the use of water and steam power, which
became general between 1860 and 1870; and the further subdivision
of labor. Within recent years women have taken the places of men
in operating the lighter machines, while children now perform the
work that women were doing heretofore.6 Subdivision of labor,
however, as, for example, the splitting up of the process of ''heeling"
into "nailing," "shaving," "blacking," and "polishing," has tended
continually to introduce less skilled labor — first of women and then
of children.
Another result of the introduction of machinery was, of course,
the reduction of the piece rate of wages. In 1862 an "intelligent
a See Table XI, p. 253.
b Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, pp. 741, 742.
See also, in this connection, Thirteenth Annual Report of the United States Commis-
sioner of Labor, Hand and Machine Labor, 1898, Vol. I, p. 122.
CHAPTER III. — CLOTHING AND THE SEWING TRADES. 173
shoe binder" informed Miss Virginia Penny that she did work then
for 37 cents for which she had formerly received 75 cents.0 The
actual earnings of women who worked at home on boots and shoes
were probably, indeed, even lower after the introduction of the sew-
ing machine than they had been before, owing to competition and
consequent unemployment. Miss Aurora Phelps stated before a
meeting of working women in Boston in 1869 that, though the one
thousand girls working at shoes in that city could, at the current
rates, make $1 to $1.25 a day, they had to spend so much time wait-
ing for work that they actually made only from 20 to 30 cents a day.6
Later she stated that there were women in some shoe manufacturing
towns who had to work at rates not exceeding 25 cents a day.0
Women home workers in the boot and shoe industry were subject,
moreover, not merely to the low wages, but to other evil conditions
common to the home workers in the clothing industries. In 1866,
for example, a woman employed in Boston to make rosettes for shoes
at 1 cent each, and who found it impossible to make over 40 in a day,
complained that when they were done the commission merchant for
whom she worked refused to pay for them. She added that she
knew of three other good seamstresses whom he had refused to pay
for the same work.d In 1865, too, the subcontract system was intro-
duced among the women who worked on ladies' slippers in Haverhill.
One woman under this system would take out all the work and hire
girls to make the shoes .e This appears to have been part of the
movement toward the "gang system" of labor, which was at that
time gaining the ascendancy throughout the whole shoe manufac-
turing business.
In the factories, however, both wages and conditions were better.
In 1869, for instance, it was said that the Daughters of St. Crispin in
Lynn earned from $10 to $16 per week./ And two years later the
women shoe fitters of New York, of whom there were reported to be
about 1,500, earned from $10 to $18 and even $22 a week.? In
Brooklyn, too, where it was said that the fitting shops were con-
ducted entirely by women, who did the principal part of all the fine
work on ladies', misses', and children's shoes that were made in New
York and Brooklyn, the average wages of the stitchers were given as
$10 per week.^ But in Lynn in 1876 it was complained that reduc-
a Penny, Think and Act, 1867, p. 32.
& Workingman's Advocate, May 8, 1869.
c American Workman, May 29, 1869.
<* Daily Evening Voice, February 10, 1866.
« Idem, March 1, 1865.
/American Workman, May 15, 1869.
g Idem, February 11, 1871. Quoted from the New York Star.
Mdem, July 8, 1871.
174 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
tions had been made in the wages of stitchers which made it ' ' impos-
sible for them to earn a living/' a
In general, it may be said that the boot and shoe industry is the
only one of the more important clothing industries in which an indus-
trial cycle has been completed and the women workers have been
definitely transferred from the home to the factory. Home work is
usually, under modern conditions, the lowest round in woman's
industrial ladder, and boot and shoe making under the factory sys-
tem, though probably not superior as an occupation for women to
boot and shoe making under the domestic system as practiced in the
smaller shoe towns in the first half of the nineteenth century, is cer-
tainly superior to the same industry as practiced in the cities during
the same period. As an occupation for women, boot and shoe bind-
ing has been rescued by machinery and the factory system from the
degradation of the other sewing trades and has been placed upon a
level with the textile industries. Wages, indeed, in boot and shoe
factories, have been higher, upon the whole, than in cotton mills,
and the competition of the foreign born has not been so great as in
the textile industries.
a Workingman's Advocate, April 22, 1876. Quoted from the Lynn Record. The
women shoe binders occasionally went on strike to resist reductions in wages, as, for
example, in Rochester, N. Y., in 1866 (Boston Weekly Voice, May 31, 1866) and in
Stoneham and Lynn, Mass., in 1872 (Third Annual Report of the Massachusetts
Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1872, pp. 434-437). For other figures relating to the
wages of women in the boot and shoe industry, see the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh,
twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth annual reports of the Massachusetts Bureau of Sta-
tistics of Labor and the Nineteenth Annual Report of the United States Commissioner
of Labor, 1904.
CHAPTER IV.
DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE.
175
CHAPTER IV.
DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE.
The occupations included under the term " domestic and personal
service," though not properly industrial in character, have been of
such importance as gainful pursuits for women, and have served so
constantly as complementary to the industrial employments, that
they deserve consideration in any history of women in industry.
Women were probably "hired out " before they engaged in any handi-
craft, even the manufacture of textiles and clothing, for consumption
outside of the family; that is, for pay. From the beginning of his-
tory, too, the opportunity to "hire out" has continually confronted
the working woman and continually she has been admonished, when
she complained that her conditions of work were hard and her pay
inadequate, to betake herself to the kitchen, where jfche need for labor
has always been loudly proclaimed. It is, then, of interest to trace,
at least roughly, the history of women in domestic and personal
service in order to see, if possible, how this group of open occupations
has influenced her employment in the industrial field.
In the first place, it is interesting to observe that the group of occu-
pations included in the census under "domestic and personal service"
has materially decreased in importance so far as the employment of
women is concerned since 1870, when the first statistics upon the sub-
ject were collected. In 1870, according to Table XII (page 254),
women constituted 41.8 per cent, and in 1900 only 35 per cent of all
the persons engaged in domestic and personal service.
SERVANTS AND WAITRESSES.
Few changes have been made in domestic service as an occupation
for women. The great mass of servants and waiters have always been
and still are women. Of the applicants for employment to the Society
for the Encouragement of Faithful Domestic Servants in New York
between 1826 and 1829, 1,080 were white males, 661 colored males,
7,630 white females, and 916 colored females.0 About 83 per cent,
then, were females. Though changes in classification have seriously
affected the census figures on this point, Table XII shows that within
"Poulson'a American Daily Advertiser, May 23, 1829.
49450°_S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol 9 12 177
178 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
recent years there has been a tendency for the proportion of women
servants and waitresses to the total number of persons engaged in
these occupations to decrease. The occupations of servants and wait-
resses have also tended to become of diminishing importance to
women as compared with other pursuits. Table VI (page 247) shows
that, while in 1890, 30.9 per cent of all the female breadwinners 15
years of age and over were servants and waitresses, in 1900 the per-
centage was only 24.2. Nevertheless, the fact that nearly one-fourth
of all the women workers belonged, even in 1900, to this group of
occupations, shows its great numerical importance.
The nationality of domestic servants, it is true, has changed con-
siderably. It is probable, however, that new immigrants have always
furnished the largest proportion of servants. At first, the great mass
of these immigrants were English and Scotch, then Irish, later Ger-
mans, and still later Scandinavians. Between 1826 and 1830, of the
applicants for employment to the New York Society for the Encour-
agement of Faithful Domestics, 3,601 were Americans, 8,346 Irish,
642 English, 2,574 colored, and 377 foreigners from various countries.0
Nevertheless, one newspaper about 1830 remarked that " there is no
class of persons in such demand in this country as good cooks, waiters,
and chambermaids7' and regretted that "among the motley emi-
gration from Eufope * * * there are not more servants well
instructed." "Their wages," it added, "in New York, Boston, and
Philadelphia, is at least double what they could obtain in any part of
England, and four times the wages given in Scotland or Ireland. ' ' b In
1845, again, the New York Tribune estimated that of the 10,000 to
12,000 girls and women engaged in various forms of domestic labor
in that city from 7,000 to 8,000 were Irish, about 2,000 German, and
the rest American, French, etc.* It is evident that the great pre-
ponderance of foreigners in domestic service within recent years is no
new phenomenon.
The conditions of labor of domestic servants have changed but
little. In colonial days, it is true, girls were frequently apprenticed,
until of age or married, to domestic service. Usually the indenture
in such cases was silent upon the subjects she was to be taught, but
occasionally it was specified that she should be taught "the trade, art,
or mystery of spinning woolen and linen," and sometimes knitting
and sewing. This indicates probably the greatest change which has
occurred in the character of work performed by women servants.
Their duties have become less of a manufacturing character and more
purely personal. In colonial times a servant who was a good spinner
fl Derived from figures given in Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, May 23, 1829,
and the New York Mercury, May 12, 1830.
b Carey's Select Excerpta, vol. 4, p. 332.
c New York Daily Tribune, November 6, 1845.
CHAPTER IV. — DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE. 179
was greatly prized and paid comparatively high wages, and a large
part of the time of domestic servants was spent in manufacturing
occupations of one kind or another. Gradually even sewing has
been, in the great majority of cases, dropped from the list of duties
of the domestic servant, and baking is now in a large and increasing
proportion of families turned over to the professional baker. Such
industries, too, as the manufacture of soap and the brewing of liquors
have gradually been dropped from the duties of the domestic servant.
The canning and preserving of fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish, too,
are rapidly falling out of the range of domestic service.
Meanwhile, though there are no statistics to measure the change,
it is probable that an increasingly large proportion of the women
classified as " servants and waitresses" have been employed in the
latter capacity under conditions quite different from those of the
domestic servant. The waitress usually has fixed hours of labor and
frequently, if not usually, rents her own room and goes out to her
work just as does the saleswoman or clerk."
The wages of domestic servants have increased in proportion to
the increase of the opportunities opened to women for employment
in other occupations. In 1829 a writer in the Mechanics' Free Press
stated that for a period of at least thirty years the wages of female
domestics had remained practically stationary, but that they had
profited somewhat by the fall in prices which occurred during that
period.6 In New England, however, the opening of the cotton
factories, especially those at Lowell, had caused a decided increase in
the wages of women domestics. Wages in New England, which had
averaged about 70 cents a week in 1808 and 50 cents in 1815,c ranged
from $1.25 to $1.50 a week in 1849.d In New York the usual wages,
which appear to have been between $4 and $5 a month in 1826,* were
said to have been about $6 a month in 1835/ In Pottsville, Pa., the
wages of servant girls in 1830 were $1 a week, and women who could
« In New York City in 1851 there were said to be a number of places where girls
tended bars. (Burns, Life in New York, 1851.) And in 1868 waitresses in saloons
in New York are said to have received $3 a week and what they could make, amounting
in all to between $10 and $20 a week. (The Revolution, Oct. 8, 1868.) Fewer
women, probably, are now employed as waitresses in saloons than in the earlier years.
6 Mechanics' Free Press, October 17 and November 7, 1829.
c Sixteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1885,
pp. 228, 238. In 1830, however, a writer in the Boston Workinman's Advocate,
who signed herself "A Working Woman," complained that domestic servants were
obliged to spend all their wages on clothing because "if a girl goes to a place but
scantily furnished with clothes and those mean, she is regarded as an object for sus-
picion to point the finger at." (Quoted in the Mechanics' Free Press, Sept. 18, 1830.)
d Aiken, Labor and Wages, p. 29.
f Workingman's Advocate, January 9, 1830. Quoted from the Christian Register,
May 6, 1826.
/The Man, June 24, 1835.
180 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNEKS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
clean house and wash clothes could readily obtain 50 cents a day.0 A
writer in the Delaware Advertiser in 1830 stated that a servant in his
family received 75 cents a week, or $39 a year, which, he said, was
almost the lowest wages ever paid for housework.5 Domestic ser-
vants, he added, were scarce.
On the other hand, it appears from the testimony of competent
persons that in New York, at least, the supply of domestic servants
about this time was actually greater than the demand. In the
" Address to the Public/' issued by the Philadelphia Society for the
Encouragement of Faithful Domestic Servants at the time of its
organization, and signed by Mathew Carey and seven others, it was
naively said of the New York society: "But it appears that the society
has so much improved the standing of this class that domestics with
good characters (no others are allowed to be registered on the books),
are more numerous than the demand for them requires; as it appears
there were above 1,300 more applications of domestics than for them
in the year 1828-29." c And in 1846 Horace Greeley stated in an
editorial in the New York Tribune that household service in New
York was nearly as much overdone as other lines of women's work.
He estimated that not less than a thousand women willing to do
housework were looking for places in that city. At the same time
he acknowledged that American girls were unwilling to engage in
domestic service, but thought them justified. "Yet when Yankee
girls," he said, "nine-tenths prefer to encounter the stunning din,
the imperfect ventilation, monotonous labor, and excessive hours of
a cotton factory in preference to doing housework, be sure the latter
is not yet what it should be."d
Whether or not there was a scarcity of domestic servants, their
wages rose. In 1845 the wages of domestic servants in New York
were said to be from $4 to $10 per month,6 and in 1871 from $10 to
$14/ In the latter year hotel chambermaids in New York, of whom
there were said to be about 1,600, earned from $9 to $11; hotel wait-
resses, of whom there were about 1,000, from $11 to $16; and hotel
cooks, of whom there were about 3,000, from $12 to $50 per month
and board. ^
« United States Gazette, August 10, 1830.
6 Quoted in Delaware Free Press, February 27, 1830.
cPoulson's American Daily Advertiser, May 23, 1829.
<*New York Weekly Tribune, September 16, 1846.
« Idem, November 6, 1845.
/American Workman, February 11, 1871. Quoted from the New York Star.
<7 Idem. In 1853 the waiters at the Mansion House in New York City went on strike
for $18 per month instead of $15, which they had been receiving. The proprietor
promised to pay the advance "to all of them that remained after the 1st of May."
But on that day they were all dismissed, and their places taken by "12 young girls,
neatly attired," who "went through with their duties in a manner highly pleasing
to the numerous guests of the house." (New York Daily Tribune, May 3, 1853.)
CHAPTER IV. DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE. 181
The domestic-servant problem, like many other labor problems, is
not as new as is often supposed. Some eighty years ago societies
were formed in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston "for the
encouragement of faithful domestic servants."0 The work of these
societies was of two kinds, the provision of an employment office for
domestic servants, and the awarding of prizes to servants who
remained the longest time in one situation. The New York society,
which was organized in 1826, gave at the end of the first year a Bible,
at the end of the second $3, and a dollar additional for each succeed-
ing year until the seventh, when the sum was raised to $10. The
employers had the privilege of entering servants' names for these
prizes.6 The employment office of the society sent servants only to
subscribers, and received applications only from servants who could
produce satisfactory recommendations.
The unrepublican attitude of these " societies for the encourage-
ment of faithful domestic servants" caused, naturally, consider-
able criticism. A writer in the Christian Inquirer of May 6, 1826,
speaking of the New York society's "friendly advice to servants,"
issued apparently on the occasion of its first anniversary, remarked
that "the advice seems better calculated for the meridian of London
than that of New York." "The society," he said, "appear to think
that there is a certain species of mankind, born for the use of the
remainder; and they talk of improving them as they would a breed
of horned cattle."0 He noted, with unfavorable comments, the
following pieces of advice:
Never quit a place, on your own accord, except on such account,
that in distress, or death, you think you did right.
Be moderate in your wages; many very good places are lost by
asking too much.
If you can not pray as well as you would, be sure every night and
morning to do it as well as you can.
Rise early, and your services will give more satisfaction.
Be modest and quiet, and not talkative and presuming.
Don't spend any part of the Sabbath in idleness, or walking about
for pleasure.
Watch against daintiness.
Be always employed, for Satan finds some mischief still for idle
hands to do.
"The Philadelphia society was organized in 1829 and issued monthly reports as
late as 1832 (Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, Apr. 7, 1832). Other employ-
ment offices existed at this time, but they were apparently no more honestly con-
ducted than those of the present day, and complaint was often made of them. It was
even said that girls were sometimes sent from them to houses of ill fame. (Mechanics'
Free Press, Feb. 28, 1829, "The Night Hawk," and Idem., June 5, 1830, "The
Night Hawk.")
& Second Annual Report of the Managers of the Society for the Encouragement of
Faithful Domestic Servants in New York, pp. 1, 2.
c Quoted in Workingman's Advocate, January 9, 1830.
182 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAENERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
Keep your temper and tongue under government ; never give your
employer a sharp answer, nor be in haste to excuse yourself.
Leave every place respectfully; it is your duty.
The "friendly advice," he said, also recommended certain passages
from the Bible, exhorting servants to be obedient to their masters, and
he gave the quotations. " All the foregoing passages," he added, " are
evidently addressed to slaves, bondmen, and women, as Paul says,
servants under the yoke." There seems, indeed, to have been ground
for his assertion that the duties inculcated in the "friendly advice"
were "too much on one side, tending more to the advantage of the
hirer than the hired." ° At the time of the formation of the Philadel-
phia society a writer in the Mechanics' Free Press gently suggested
that a society to encourage "faithful employers" would be more
likely to attain the desired end. "There is quite as much propriety,"
he said, "that those who employ should produce certificates of ca-
pacity, correctness, etc., as those who are employed. * * * From
an experience of near 20 years as an employer, I am led to conclude
there is in this country less to be complained of on the part of the em-
ployer than the employed."6
Complaint, however, was frequently made that, while the women
were bemoaning their poor wages in other occupations, they refused
to become domestic servants. "The talk," said the Boston Post in
1847, "about the low wages of females in Boston is all gammon — girls
can have good wages if they will labor — it is next to impossible to hire
competent and faithful females to do household work here at any
wages, and if, by chance, you obtain one of this description, she is so
indifferent about performing her duties in a manner agreeable to the
wishes of her employer, and so unreasonable in her requirements and
arbitrary in defining her own particular line of work, that it is impos-
sible to submit to her exactions long."c
In 1867 even the New York Working Women's Protective Union
urged girls to "forsake unremunerative employments and accept posi-
tions in families," and boasted that upward of 50 had been induced to
take this course.** That more did not do so was attributed by the
New York Times to the "false pride which will not permit them to
serve a mistress, but keeps them slaves to masters." e In 1870, too,
the "Montana Immigrant Association" was urging the unemployed
women of the cities to go West, where good housekeepers could com-
mand $75 to $100, and kitchen help from $50 to $75 a month/
a Quoted in Workingman's Advocate, January 9, 1830.
& Mechanics' Free Press, January 9, 1830.
c Quoted in the Harbinger, April 10, 1847.
d Daily Evening Voice, March 2, 1867. From Fourth Annual Report of the New
York Working Women's Protective Union.
« Quoted in the Revolution, July 23, 1868.
/The Revolution, June 9, 1870.
CHAPTER IV. — DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE. 183
It has already been seen that a number of writers, including Samuel
Whitcomb and Horace Greeley, considered the position of a domestic
servant unenviable. In 1869, too, the same complaints that are
heard to-day were made of domestic service as an occupation for
women. The girls, it was said, had no time to call their own, and
were obliged to work 7 days a week and from 12 to 15 hours a day on
the average. The kitchens were dark and unventilated and the serv-
ants' sleeping rooms cheerless, etc.0 And in 1870, when the Boston
Working Women's Association took up for discussion the subject of
domestic service, it was concluded that the lack of social position and
independence was at the root of the problem. "When work in the
kitchen was made as honorable as music teaching," asserted one
speaker, " and the domestic treated as respectfully as the music teacher,
there would be no lack of girls who would go to service." Miss Jennie
Collins complained that "if a girl goes into the kitchen she is sneered
at and called the Bridget; but if she goes behind the counter she is
escorted by gentlemen to the theater, dined, and called a lady." " The
reason girls don't live in private families," she said, "is because they
lose their independence there. They can't go out and buy a spool
of thread until their appointed afternoon or evening comes around
for it. When mistresses learn to treat their girls as human beings,
they can get enough of them."6
LAUNDRESSES.
Laundry work, though a declining occupation for women,0 has
always been one of considerable importance. Unfortunately statis-
tics upon the subject date back only to 1870, when steam laundries
had already for fifteen or twenty years been in operation. It seems
probable, however, that before the advent of the steam laundry and
the Chinese laundryman this industry was entirely hi the hands of
women, and that these two factors have combined to reduce the
proportion of women from 91.5 per cent in 1870 to 85.3 per cent in
1900. But, though a slight displacement of women by men has taken
place owing to the introduction of laundry machinery, the steam
laundry has never more than partially superseded hand work, and
in this women have always held their own.
As early as 1851 it was complained that capital had entered into
competition with the washerwomen of New York, and that "its
hundred arms are eagerly catching at every dirty shirt in the city."d
Extensive laundries, it was said, had recently been established. Prob-
Revolution, August 12, 1869.
& Idem, February 10, 1870.
cSee Tables VI and XII, pp. 247, 254.
d Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
184 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
ably these were steam laundries. By 1853, at any rate, steam-laun-
dry machinery was in operation at one of the big New York hotels,
and it was said at that tune that the plan of cleaning clothes by steam
was not new. "One man and three women," said the account, "do
all the washing for this hotel, amounting to from 3,000 to 5,000
pieces a day, and their labor is not half as severe as that of a woman
who rubs the dirt out of two or three dozen pieces upon her hands or
the washboards.a
The wages of laundresses, however, have been low. In Philadelphia
in 1829 as low as 20 or 25 cents per dozen is said to have been paid
women for washing and rough drying.5 And hi 1833 the Rev. Mr.
Dupuy, of Philadelphia, wrote Mathew Carey that he knew of a case
of a woman who received $10 per quarter for washing, and frequently
washed 8 dozen clothes per week, she finding soap, starch, fuel, etc.
This was at the rate of about 10 cents per dozen.0 Laundresses in
New York in 1851, however, are said to have received "6 shillings a
dozen with buttons replaced/'*2 and in 1866 the washerwomen of
Brooklyn went on strike, according to a contemporary labor paper,
for $1.25 instead of $1 per day.« In Boston hi 1869, moreover,
washerwomen were receiving 15 cents an hour/ In the same year
the laundresses of San Francisco, who were said two years earlier to
have received from $30 to $40 per month,? began to protest against
the competition of the Chinese.^
The wages of women workers hi steam laundries have generally
been lower and their conditions of labor much worse than those of
independent laundresses, for the work in steam laundries is more
monotonous and consequently more exhausting and the hours are
usually longer. During the sixties, however, the laundry workers of
Troy, N. Y., are said to have raised their wages from $2 or $3 to $8
and $14 a week. But their hours appear to have been, throughout
the period, 12 or 14 a day.*
a The Una, Providence, R. I., August 1, 1853.
6 Carey's Miscellaneous Essays, p. 268. " Report on Female Wages," March 25, 1829.
c Carey, Appeal to the Wealthy of the Land, third edition, p. 4.
d Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
« Boston Weekly Voice, September 20, 1866.
/American Workman, May 1, 1869. Testimony before legislative committee on
hours of labor. According to another statement their wages were 12$ cents an hour
and in some cases they washed all day for 50 or 60 cents. (Workingman's Advocate,
May 8, 1869.)
0 Boston Weekly Voice, April 18, 1867.
fc Workingman's Advocate, November 27, 1869.
*The American Workman, August 7, 1869. See also History of Women in Trade
Unions, Vol. X of this report, pp. 106, 107.
CHAPTER IV. — DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE. 185
MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS IN DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE.
Of the history of women's work in the other occupations included
under the general term " domestic and personal service" little can be
said. Nursing, for which $2 per week was paid in Massachusetts in
1825,° and of which a woman nurse complained at a meeting of work-
ing women hi New York in 1868 that, while she received $1 and $2 a
day for her services, men nurses were paid $3 to $6 a day for the same
work,6 has now become a well-paid profession.
A number of other occupations included hi this group, such as
boarding and lodging house keeping, are practically independent
businesses. It is interesting to note, however, that keeping taverns
and even shops was one of the earliest women's occupations in this
country. The women engaged in other occupations in this group, as
in hairdressing, are hi part Independent entrepreneurs and in part
wage-workers.0
The women included under " Laborers, not specified/' however,
are for the most part scrubbing and charwomen, and women who go
out by the day for any and every kind of work. These women are
usually untrained and unskilled even at needlework — merely day
laborers, more or less casual. Many such women were thrown upon
their own resources at the time of the Civil War, and one of them, who
applied in vain for work to the New York Working Women's Pro-
tective Union, finally, said the report of that organization, went out
upon the streets to shovel snow, at which she was fairly successful.41
The wages of these women have always been low. In 1869 the
scrubbing and charwomen of Boston were said to receive only from
30 to 40 cents a day/ According to another statement, however,
many of this class of laborers received 12 J cents an hour/ and it is
probable that their wages have always been higher, upon the whole,
than those of the lowest class of sewing women, while they have
doubtless been quite as regularly employed.
« Sixteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1885,
p. 253.
6 The Revolution, October 1, 1868.
« Shirley Dare interviewed one hairdresser in New York in 1870 who received $5.50
a week for 10 hours a day labor. (New York Tribune, Feb. 26, 1870.)
d Daily Evening Voice, March 2, 1867. From Fourth Annual Report of the New
York Working Women's Protective Union.
« American Workman, May 1, 1869. Testimony of Miss Phelpe before legislative
committee on hours of labor.
/ Workingman's Advocate, May 8, 1869.
CHAPTER V.
FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS.
187
CHAPTER V.
FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS.
The preparation of food and drink is certainly not a new occupa-
tion for women, and there can hardly be here any question of their
displacing men. Indeed, in the manufacture of foods and bever-
ages for sale men have displaced women, who produced merely for
home consumption. Men rarely, for example, make bread for the use
of their own families. They leave that to the women. But most of the
bread baked for sale — baker's bread — is and always has been made by
men. The tendency, however, as shown in Table XIII (page 255),
is decidedly toward the increased employment of women in the manu-
facture of " bread and other bakery products," the proportion of
women to all employees having increased from 5.6 per cent in 1850
to 17.3 per cent in 1900. This same tendency is even more marked
in the entire group of occupations included under " food and kindred
products/1 the proportion of women employees having increased
from 2.5 per cent in 1850 to 20.8 per cent in 1900 and to 22.5 per cent
in 1905.a In the manufacture of " liquors and beverages," too,
where the proportion of women is, however, very small, only 1.7
per cent in 1900, there has also been an increase from 0.8 per cent in
1850. There is, then, a tendency for women to reassume in the
wholesale food manufacture their traditional occupations as food
and beverage preparers, an economic function which they have never
relinquished in the home, where by far the largest amount of food
consumed has doubtless always been prepared. The movement
means merely that women are, after some delay and even yet halt-
ingly, following another of their traditional occupations out of the
home into the shop and factory.
The largest number of women engaged in any single industry of
this group is found in the canning and preserving of fruits and vege-
tables, a business which began upon a considerable scale with the
introduction, between 1840 and 1850, of methods of hermetically
sealing cans, and was given a great impetus by the California gold
fever and the civil war. Women were doubtless employed in this
industry, and also in the canning of fish and oysters, from the begin-
o Derived from Special Reports of the Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part I, p. 28.
189
190 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
ning. In the canning of fruits and vegetables, however, the propor-
tion of women to all employees appears to have slightly decreased
since 1870, but to have increased since 1890. The preparation and
canning of pickles, preserves, and sauces for sale has been, since
early colonial times, a favorite occupation for women — in the early
times as an independent undertaking and more recently as wage
labor. In this occupation the proportion of women to all employees
appears to have increased somewhat since 1850, but to have fallen
off in 1870 and 1880.° In meat packing a few women were employed
in 1850 and 1860 and a much larger number and proportion in
1870, perhaps owing to the addition to the business of can making.
Not until after the Chicago strike of 1904 were women employed in
the actual handling of the meat — in the sausage department in the
Chicago stock yards. This is not their only occupation.
Many of the women employed in the canning industries, and most
of those in meat packing, are engaged in tending and feeding the
automatic machinery for making cans and in painting, labeling, and
wrapping the cans after they are filled. The cans were originally
made by tinners and their manufacture was a man's trade. But
with the introduction of machinery, which became a factor in the
business in the early eighties, women were introduced. Part of the
machinery, indeed, appears almost from the first to have been oper-
ated by women and gradually, as it has been improved, their employ-
ment has increased until now nearly every operation is carried on by
a machine tended by a woman.6 As early as 1888 a large number
of girls were employed in the Chicago stock yards in painting and
labeling cans. In some establishments they were paid, it was said,
$5 a week, but were expected to paint at least 1,500 cans per day of
9 hours. Little girls scoured cans, too, for $3 a week. In other
establishments they were paid by the piece, at the rate of 5 cents a
hundred cans. Some girls were said to handle as many as 2,500
cans a day, earning $7.50 a week. At Armour's packing house
girls were paid from 3 cents to 5 cents per hundred for labeling and
japanning cans, earning $6 to $9 a week.c
The next largest number of women are employed in the manufac-
ture of confectionery, in which the proportion of women employees
has increased enormously, from 19.9 per cent in 1850 to 47.2 per
cent in 1900. The percentage, however, was the same in 1860 as in
1850. The increase has therefore all occurred since 1860, and
oSee Table XIII, p. 255. The fall in 1870 and 1880 is at least in part accounted
for by the fact that in 1850 all "females employed," regardless of age, were included.
&The tendency within recent years has been to make the manufacture of cans a
distinct industry, not carried on in connection with the actual canning of the foods.
(Twelfth Census, 1900, Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, p. 464.)
cMcEnnis, White Slaves of Free America, 1888, pp. 70, 71.
CHAPTER V. — FOOD AND KINDEED PRODUCTS. 191
was greatest between 1880 and 1890.° The wages of women in this
occupation have always been low and their hours long. "Confec-
tionery girls," said Virginia Penny in 1870, "in some of the best
establishments in New York, spend 17, and some even 18 hours, attend-
ing to their duties, and receive only $2, and board and washing, $4.50,
equal to 2J cents an hour/'6
In many of the industries included in this group the displace-
ment of women by men is obvious. In colonial days, for example,
brewing was an industry which belonged to the women of the house-
hold. In general, families manufactured their own beer, as well as
their own bread, and peach brandy was a household manufacture of
considerable value. More or less of it was regularly exported. c In
1850 only 0.5 per cent and in 1900 only 1.3 per cent of the employees
engaged in making malt liquors were women. In cheese, butter,
and condensed-milk 'making, too, men have obviously displaced
women. The dairy maid is no longer. From 1870 to 1900 the
proportion of women employees in this subgroup of industries
decreased from 27.8 per cent to 8.1 per cent.d In the roasting and
grinding of coffee and spices, however, the proportion of women has
increased from 3.1 per cent in 1850 to 44 per cent in 1900.'
o See Table XIII, p. 255.
& Penny, How Women Can Make Money, 1870, p. xiii. For the wages of women
bakers and confectioners from 1871 to 1891 see the Twenty-sixth Annual Report of
the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1895, pp. 445-447.
c Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. I, p. 264.
d In 1865 the cheese factories of New York, according to the state census returns,
employed 713 men and 794 women. (Census of the State of New York for 1865,
Albany, 1867.)
«See Table XIII, pp. 255, 256, for the statistics of these and other industries
included under "food and kindred products" and "liquors and beverages."
CHAPTER YL
OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 61-2— vol 9—11 13 193
CHAPTER VI.
OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
The presence of women workers in the industries already men-
tioned is not, broadly speaking, evidence of any invasion by them
of man's sphere of employment or any restriction by them of man's
opportunities. From time immemorial women have been engaged
in spinning, weaving, sewing, domestic service, and the preparation
of food and drink. The revolution in these occupations has been in
the industries themselves, and has consisted primarily in their trans-
fer from the home to the factory, and in the growth of a large scale
wholesale manufacture dependent upon commerce and the trade
and transportation industries. No such revolution has occurred in
domestic and personal service, but the other industries already
considered have been transformed, and with this transformation have
come great changes in their conditions of labor.
There are, however, still other industries in which the presence of
women can not be accounted for upon such a principle of division of
labor between the sexes, and the most important of such industries,
from the point of view of woman's work, are the subject of this
chapter. In any history of industries, regardless of the sex of the
employees, the occupations here considered would have to be much
more extensively treated, for they employed in 1905 about 77 per
cent of all the men engaged in manufacturing industries. Com-
paratively few women, however, less than 30 per cent of all those
engaged in manufacturing industries, were employed in other occu-
pations than the manufacture of textiles, clothing, and food, liquors,
and kindred products.
TOBACCO AND CIGAR FACTORY OPERATIVES.
STATISTICS.
Women have always been employed in considerable numbers in
the manufacture of tobacco. In 1820, in all the establishments
from which returns were received, there were employed 647 men,
167 women, and 586 f'boys and girls,"0 or 11.9 per cent adult
o These figures are derived from those given in American State Papers, Finance,
Vol. IV, pp. 29-223, and are doubtless based on very incomplete returns. The age
division used is not there specified, and no distinction is made between boys and
girla.
196 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
women. The proportion of women employed has, moreover, steadily
increased. Women formed 13.9 per cent in 1850, as against 11.9
per cent in 1820, of all the employees engaged in the manufacture
of tobacco; 13.9 percent in 1860; 16.3 par cent in 1870; 23.4 per
cent in 1880; 29.7 per cent in 1890; 37.5 jjer cent in 1900; and 41.7
per cent in 1905.° Within recent years, however, the displacement
has been rather of children than of men.
Of the different branches of tobacco manufacture, Table XIV
shows that the proportion of women engaged in the manufacture of
" tobacco: cigars and cigarettes," has always been considerably
smaller than hi the manufacture of " tobacco: chewing, smoking,
and snuff," and smaller in every year, except 1890, than hi " tobacco:
stemming and rehandling." The reason for this is that machinery
has been employed to a far greater extent in the manufacture of
11 tobacco: chewing, smoking, and snuff," and has made it possible
to employ unskilled labor.6 Even of the women classified as en-
gaged in the manufacture of cigars, a large number, and perhaps
the majority, are employed in the preliminary process of "stripping"
the tobacco leaves.
The largest total number of women, however, has recently been
employed in the manufacture of "tobacco: cigars and cigarettes"
in which in 1860 only 731 women were engaged, as compared with
2,990 women in the manufacture of "tobacco: chewing, smoking,
and snuff." By 1870, however, the number of women cigar and
cigarette makers had risen to 2,934 as against 4,860 women in the
other division; by 1880 to 9,108 as against 10,776 in the other divi-
sion, and hi 1890 it jumped to 24,214, while the number in the other
division slightly decreased. Though the proportion of women has,
on the whole, increased in every branch of tobacco manufacture,
the greatest change has evidently been in the manufacture of cigars
and cigarettes.
-The change shown by these statistics, however, is not the only
one which has taken place. Cigar making was, in the beginning of
the industry in this country, carried on by women as a household
manufacture. The first domestic cigars are said to have been made
in 1801 by a Connecticut woman,6 and in the early years of the
century nearly the whole of the Connecticut tobacco crop was
"worked into cigars by the female members of the family of the
<*See Table XIV, p. 256. It must be remembered j:hat the figures for 1850 and
1860 are for all "female hands" regardless of age, and that those for 1905 (derived from
Special Reports of the Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part I, p. 58), refer only
to establishments conducted under the "factory system."
& Jacobstein, "The Tobacco Industry in the United States," Columbia University
Studies, vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 140, 141.
« Abbott, Women in Industry, p. 190.
CHAPTER VI. OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 197
grower. "a The manufacture of cigars by the families of tobacco
growers has never, indeed, wholly ceased, at least in Pennsylvania.
But these cigars were inferior in quality and finish to the imported
and factory-made product, and the manufacture of cigars on farms
early gave way before the skill of immigrants who made a better
quality of product at less cost in city tenements.
Women, however, long before the introduction of the mold, had,
to a certain extent, followed the industry into the factory. As
early as 1810 there was an establishment at West Suffield, Conn.,
which employed 12 or 15 females in making cigars. Later the same
establishment employed men also, but at first women only were
employed.6 In 1830, too, a cigar factory at Newburyport, Mass., em-
ployed " females only, from 30 to 40, many of them under 15 years
of age." c And in 1832 there were employed in 11 tobacco and
cigar factories in Massachusetts 238 women, 50 men, and 9 children. d
In 1835, too, the women cigar makers employed in Philadelphia
were invited to go on strike with the men and the latter stated that
uthe present low wages hitherto received by the females engaged
in cigar making is far below a fair compensation for the labor ren-
dered."* It was estimated in 1856 that one-third of the persons
employed at the trade in Connecticut were women/ and a decade
earlier there was said to have been a cigar factory in Cuba which
employed 10,000 girls, all Indians and Malays.?
During the last half of the nineteenth century the proportion of
women to the total number of employees engaged in the manufacture
of " tobacco: cigars and cigarettes" increased rapidly. In 1860 they
constituted only 9.1 per cent and in 1870 only 10.7 per cent of the
total number of employees. Between 1870 and 1880 began the great
increase, which has continued until, in 1905, 42.2 per cent of all the
employees in the industry were women. h Although an uncertain
number of these women were employed as strippers, it is evident
that women have displaced men as cigar makers, just as men earlier
displaced women.
a Trumbull, Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, Vol. I, p. 218.
6 Idem, pp. 219, 220.
c Mechanics' Press, Utica, March 20, 1830. Quoted from the Newburyport Herald.
<* Documents Relative to the Manufactures in the United States, Executive Docu-
ments, Twenty-second Congress, first session, Vol. I, pp. 221, 241, 247, 251, 257, 323,
461.
« Proceedings of the Government and Citizens of Philadelphia on the Reduction
of the Hours of Labor and Increase of Wages, Boston, 1835, p. 9.
/ United States Tobacco Journal, 1900, special century edition, p. 34.
9 Voice of Industry, September 11, 1846.
» See Table XIV, p. 256. The figures for 1905 are derived from Special Reports
of the Census Oflice, Manufactures, 1905, Part I, p. 58.
198 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNEES WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
CAUSES OF EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN CIGAR MAKERS.
The causes of this movement were the character of the industry,
immigration, the introduction of machinery, and strikes among men
cigar makers. The work of a cigar maker is light and the skill
required is only a certain manual dexterity, at which women easily
excel. Cigar making, indeed, has always been in European countries
a recognized occupation of women, and in countries where a govern-
ment monopoly has existed has been almost exclusively woman's
work.
In the same year that the molds were introduced from Germany —
1869 — thousands of Bohemian women cigar makers began to come
to New York as the result of the war of 1866 between Prussia and
Austria, during which the invading armies destroyed the cigar fac-
tories of Bohemia.0 Before the big strike of 1877 more than half of
the cigar makers in New York City were said to have been women,
who worked crowded together in large factories, filthy tenement
houses, and small shops.6 Women, too, must have been employed
in cigar factories in other places during this period, for in 1864 there
were enough women cigar makers in Providence, R. I., to form an
independent union.0 It is not probable that these were home
workers. In Philadelphia, where it was said in 1870 that more
women were employed at cigar making than in New York, many
Americans were employed, but in New York most of the women
cigar makers were foreigners. d In 1871 it was said that 25 or 30
women cigar makers were employed in Boston, and that a hundred
or more were working in Philadelphia, though only in one depart-
ment of the trade and on a cheap grade of work/ In the same year
it was said that a woman manufactured all the cigars smoked at
Sheboygan, Wis/
The use of the mold, which began about 1869, made it possible to
employ unskilled women. As early as 1858 machines had been
tried, but, it was reported, had "not as yet been found to work
well." o A number of unsuccessful machines, indeed, were tried
o Cigar Makers' Official Journal, June 10, 1878. Industrial Commission Report,
Vol. XV, p. 507.
6 Idem, October 15, 1877.
cFincher's Trades' Review, October 8, 1864.
d Penny, How Women Can Make Money, 1870, pp. 442-444. These historical
factors account for the large proportion of married women engaged in the manufac-
ture of cigars. The Bohemian women have little prejudice against working after
marriage. Moreover, women are held in the industry after marriage by the fact that
wages are higher in this occupation than in most of the mechanical branches open to
women.
« American Workman, September 30, 1871.
/The Revolution, May 25, 1871.
Q Freedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures, 1858, p. 389.
CHAPTER vi. — OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
during this period. The internal-revenue tax which went into effect
in 1862, however, hastened the introduction of the factory system
into an industry previously an independent trade, and aided the
movement for the use of machinery, which in turn still further
increased the tendency toward consolidation." With the introduc-
tion of the mold comparatively unskilled labor was brought into the
trade, and soon women formed the majority in establishments where
molds were used.6 It was in New York that women were first
introduced in large numbers. There, too, the division of labor was
first begun — the practice of rolling and filler breaking being each
made a particular branch of the trade. By 1878, too, the stripping
and bunch machines were used by some establishments in New
York.c The suction table and machines for stripping and booking
were introduced about the same time.
The decade from 1880 to 1890 saw the rapid introduction of
machinery, the growth of the factory system of industry, and the
transplanting of women cigar makers from the tenements to the
factories. By 1895 it was said that hand work had almost entirely
disappeared.*1 And more recently the United States Bureau of
Labor reported that in many factories "only women and girls are
employed on the bunch-making machines and suction tables, and
the number of females is as high as 80 per cent of the total number
of employ ees."'
Strikes, too, have played an important part. In 1869, for instance,
a strike in Cincinnati resulted in the introduction of molding machines
and women operatives. f But in 1877 another strike in the same
city resulted in the removal of women from the shops. Two years
later, however, it was said that there were from 300 to 500 women
employed in cigar making in Cincinnati.? In 1879 a strike in St.
Louis caused the introduction of girls.* A number of strikes, too,
occurred about this time against the employment of women, but soon
the union learned its lesson and accepted them as members.'
The big strike of 1877 in New York caused a considerable amount
of substitution of women for men, and also of American for Bohemian
a Cigar Makers' Official Journal, May 10, 1878. From First Annual Report of the
Ohio Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1877, p. 199.
6 Id em, February 10, 1878.
c Idem, March 10, 1878.
<*Idem, October, 1895.
« Eleventh Special Report of the United States Commissioner of Labor, Regulation
and Restriction of Output, 1904, p. 575.
/ First Annual Report, Ohio Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1877, p. 201; Cigar
Makers' Official Journal, May 10, 1878.
0 Cigar Makers' Official Journal, January 10, 1879.
* Idem, October 10, 1879.
* See History of Women in Trade Unions, Volume X of this report, pp. 92-94.
200 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
women. Many American girls, it was said, acted as strike breakers,
replacing Bohemian women.0 At the end of this strike the employers
pronounced the instruction of girls in the art of cigar making " sur-
prisingly effective. "b Nevertheless, some of these girls were appar-
ently discharged as soon as the strike was broken, for in December,
1877, it was stated that one firm had discharged 50 girls and another
34 girls who had completed their apprenticeship at cigar making.0
The New York Tribune reported in November the number of girls
employed by eight of the largest firms, the total being under seven
hundred. d The employers, however, asserted that the number was
between three thousand and four thousand, and also claimed that
the cigars made by these strike breakers were, popular because of the
label: " These cigars were made by American girls."' In 1878 it
was said that there were nearly 4,000 women and girls employed in
the cigar factories of New York.
In other cities fewer women were employed/ But in 1876, 13 cigar-
making shops in Salem, Mass., employed 35 females and 6 males, and
in Pawtucket, R. I., in the same year, seven shops employed 9
females and 25 males.? In 1878, too, they were at work also in
Detroit, Philadelphia, and Westfield/ and by 1879 in New Orleans,
Cincinnati, Baltimore, Chicago, and "many other places."* But in
Cleveland in 1880 only 10 of the 300 or so cigar makers were said
to be women, and they were from New York.* In 1881, however,
President Strasser reported that at least one-sixth of all cigar makers
were women, and that their employment was constantly increasing.-?'
Two years later he said that there were over 10,000 women in the
trade, and that the number was increasing at the rate of almost a
thousand a year.*
In general, it may be said that the employment of women in cigar
making has been due primarily to the character of the industry.
a Cigar Makers' Official Journal, December 10, 1877. See History of Women in
Trade Unions, Volume X of this report, p. 93. See also New York Daily Tribune,
November 6 and 14, 1877.
& Cigar Makers' Official Journal, February 10, 1878. The cigars made by the girls
in one shop, however, were said by Mr. Strasser to be worthless. New York Daily
Tribune, December 4, 1877.
c Cigar Makers' Official Journal, December 24, 1877.
<* New York Tribune, November 14, 1877.
< New York Sun, November 26, 1877. There were, it was admitted, from 12,000
to 13,000 strikers.
/ Cigar Makers' Official Journal, May 10, 1878.
0 Idem, December, 1876.
A Idem, September 15, 1879.
1 Idem, March 10, 1880.
i Idem, October 10, 1881.
* Labor and Capital, Investigation of Senate Committee on Education and Labor,
1885, Vol. I, p. 453.
CHAPTER vi. — OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 201
When immigrant women went on strike they were replaced with
comparative ease by American girls. When machines were intro-
duced the proportion of women employees largely increased. It was,
as always, the character of the industry which made it possible for
employers to defeat strikes by introducing women. The machine
and the large factory have gone hand in hand with the increased
employment of women in cigar making, but it is not improbable
that without these accompaniments a large part of this increase
would still have taken place, and cigar making would have firmly
established itself as a home industry. A larger proportion of women,
it is true, are employed in the factories which use machinery than in
those which do not,0 and in the large factories than in the small.6
But it seems probable that the quality of the product manufactured
in part accounts for this, the best cigars being made principally by
skilled men in small shops with little machinery and little division of
labor. One of the chief reasons for this latter fact is that boys have
always been apprenticed to the trade, while girls have merely been
taught, as rapidly as possible, to operate machines turning out a
cheap product.
LAB OB CONDITIONS.
In considering the conditions under which women have worked
in the manufacture of tobacco it is necessary to distinguish between
the two methods, home work and factory work. Both have played
an important part. The home work, too, of the early years of the
cigar industry, which was carried on by thrifty farmers' wives, must
be distinguished from that of the immigrant women who have plied
their trade in city tenements. The New England and Pennsylvania
women who made cigars in their farm homes, as Miss Abbott has
pointed out,c were independent producers, owning their materials
and the homes in which they worked, and selling their own product,
while the tenement women were dependent upon an employer, not
merely for their materials but also for house room in which to live
and work. One of the features, indeed, of the period of the intro-
duction of immigrant labor in cigar making in New York was the
ownership by cigar manufacturers of large blocks of tenements which
they rented out at high rates to their employees.** Sometimes, too,
a Eleventh Special Report of the United States Commissioner of Labor, 1904,
pp. 560, 575. For an interesting discussion of the technique of cigar and cigarette
making, see Twelfth Census, 1900, Vol. IX, Manufactures, Part III, pp. 671, 672.
6 Twelfth Census, 1900, Special Reports, Employees and Wages, pp. 1033-1050.
c Abbott, Women in Industry, p. 197.
<* At the time of the strike of 1877 many of the strikers were evicted by their land-
lord employers. (New York Daily Tribune, Nov. 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24,
27, 28, 29, Dec. 4, 13, 1877.)
202 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
the employers ran company stores. These home-working women,
like the garment workers, were merely wage-earners who were obliged
to rent their own factories.0
Just as in garment making, the reason for the prevalence of home
work has been the small amount of capital needed and the compara-
tively limited division of labor. The tools and molds were simple
and inexpensive, and there was comparatively little to be gained by
organization and system. The first division of labor appears to have
been introduced by the skilled Bohemian women who taught their
husbands, who followed them to this country and were accustomed
only to rough farm work at home, the art of " bunch making/' they
themselves doing the more difficult work of "rolling." 6 Though this
system of "team work/' once introduced, was soon seized upon by
employers as a means of economizing skilled labor by introducing
unskilled girls or women as assistants to men, it was so simple that
it gave the factory system no real advantage over home work. Men
who were skilled cigar makers, too, soon learned to set their wives
and children to the task of "bunch making." Thus a family system
arose in which sometimes the women and sometimes the men were
the most skilled workers, but into which, in either case, the children
were irresistibly drawn.
Tenement cigar making on a large scale began in New York about
1869 with the Bohemian immigration and grew rapidly, in spite of
the vigorous campaign against it begun about 1873 by the Cigar
Makers' Union,c until by 1877 it had become firmly established. In
that year it was stated by the United Cigar Manufacturers' Associa-
tion, apparently an association of small manufacturers who were in
sympathy with the strikers, that the greater number of cigars made
hi New York were the product of tenement manufacture. d The
strike of 1877, moreover, which was directed largely against this
system, was considered as a movement against the employment of
women and children "who could not or would not work in shops." e
Toward the end of this strike, however, the New York Sun stated
that " the making of cigars in tenements is being gradually abandoned,
and large factories are being started." * In 1882 it was estimated,
in a circular issued by the Cigar Makers' Union, that out of from
a A few tenement workers, to be sure, have been independent producers, buying
their own raw material and selling their product, but these have generally been men.
Sometimes, however, families have worked together on this basis.
b Abbott, Women in Industry, p. 199.
c Labor and Capital, Investigation of Senate Committee on Education and Labor,
1885, Vol. I, p. 451.
d New York Sun, December 3, 1877.
« New York Daily Tribune, October 24, 1877. Quoted from the address issued by
the United Cigar Manufacturers' Association.
/ New York Sun, November 26, 1877.
CHAPTER VI. — OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 203
18,000 to 20,000 persons engaged in the manufacture of cigars in New
York, between 3,500 and 3,750 were employed in tenement houses.0
In 1883 a law was passed in New York forbidding the manufacture
of cigars in tenement houses, but this law was two years later declared
unconstitutional. From about this time, however, partly because
of the agitation of the union and its effect in the repugnance of the
public to tenement-made cigars, and partly because of the develop-
ment of the factory system, the manufacture of cigars in tenements
began to decline.
The conditions under which the tenement manufacture of cigars
has been carried on have always been extremely bad. In 1877 a
New York Tribune reporter described a four-story tenement house in
which Bohemians lived and worked, manufacturing cigars out of stubs
and cabbage leaves, and also an " establishment'7 which employed
about 1,000 persons, the system of employment being generally as
follows: "A floor is rented to a family for $12 a month. This rental
is paid by work, the children stripping tobacco, the mother bunching
the cigars, and the father finishing them. The family in turn relets
part of the floor to a packer, for $3 a week, and thus all get their live-
lihood. The firm [furnishes] the wrappers and the operators [fur-
nish] the fillings."6 In the same year the United Cigar Manufac-
turers' Association condemned as insanitary these tenement cigar
factories, where the babies rolled on the floor in waste tobacco, and
all the housework, cooking, cleaning of children, etc., was carried on
in the room where cigars were made. c
In factories for the manufacture of tobacco and cigars, too, the
conditions of labor early caused complaint. In Detroit in 1866 a
committee of the Eight-Hour League and Trades' Assembly found
many girls working in tobacco factories "placed in 'pigeon holes/ as
they are called, one above another, where they toil from morning until
night, breathing constantly the poisonous odor of tobacco in an atmos-
phere filled with the fine particles of the plant." They worked by the
piece. The committee were especially struck with the ill health and
the low state of morals of these girls, and expressed the opinion that
"much of the prostitution which curses the city is the loathsome
fruit of the depravity which dates its commencement at the tobacco
factories." d
a Thirteenth Annual Report, New York Bureau of Labor, 1895, Vol. I, p. 552. The
next year Mr. Adolph Strasser testified that there were about 5, 500 persons employed in
tenement-house manufacture, of whom 1,920 were males. (Labor and Capital, Inves-
tigation of Senate Committee on Education and Labor, 1885, Vol. I, p. 451.) This was
probably an estimate for the entire United States.
6 New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1877.
« New York Sun, December 3, 1877.
<* Daily Evening Voice, May 3, 1866. Quoted from the Detroit Daily Union.
204 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
A New York cigar factory, on the other hand, where women were
employed on machines, was favorably described in 1870 by the Revo-
lution, which always rejoiced in evidences of woman's expanding
sphere of activity. In the first workroom, according to the account,
was a long table holding, at intervals of about 3 feet, "the deft
machine for cigar wrapping" with a young woman or girl " performing
her light and compensatory labor of filling or wrapping cigars." In
addition there were in this room two or three " chore girls." All of
the girls, said the writer, "looked bright, intelligent, well dressed,
well cared for." One of them said she had been used to running a
sewing machine, but it had injured both her health and sight, and
she considered that her present occupation "was much less laborious
and 'wasting/ and, besides, she received nearly or quite twice the
amount of wages that her former calling afforded." "By the new
process," said The Revolution, "girls learn in a week to make as
good and neat appearing a cigar as a man could turn out under the
old system after working for months at the trade. None of these
employees earn less than a dollar a day, while many receive double
the amount and more. Upstairs again," continued the account,
"where there are more women engaged with more tobacco, in the
various stages of the incipient cigar, some are stripping, some are
stemming, and some are assorting the 'right-hand' and 'left-hand
wraps' as the leaf is parted from the spinal stem. Some are sitting
at a machine 'cutting off the tucks/ as they call it, which is the last
neat finish to the cigar, the severing, by measurement, of the rough
broad end." In one place a little boy was found working beside a
woman who might have been his mother. Both were new hands, and
each earned $1 a day.0
The question of the effect of the tobacco industry upon the health
of women workers does not appear to have been raised until the
period of the growth of tenement cigar factories, which accentuated
every possible evil condition of labor.
The wages of women cigar makers, until after the introduction of
the mold, were high as compared with women's wages in other occu-
pations, and as compared with the wages of other women in tobacco
factories. Though small girls were employed as strippers in New
York in 1871 at from $3 to $5 a week,6 women cigar makers were
said in 1868 to receive the same wages as men, from $12 to $22 in
New York City and from $7 to $20 in Philadelphia.6 In Boston, in
1871, too, it was reported that 25 or 30 women cigar makers were
a The Revolution, January 20, 1870.
& American Workman, February 11, 1871. Quoted from the New York Star.
cThe Revolution, August 13, 1868.
i CHAPTER VI. OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 205
employed at the same wages as men, for an average of 8 hours a
day.0
The use of the mold, however, which enabled the manufacturers to
employ unskilled labor, soon reduced wages. In 1877 the average
wages of women cigar makers in New York were about $3 per week,
and in one establishment the American girls went on strike because
the employer refused to pay this amount and offered them piecework. 6
In Salem, Mass., however, in 1876, the average weekly wages of
females were said to be $6.c When women were used as strike
breakers, too, they were generally paid less than men. In Rochester,
before 1885, on the occasion of a strike, an employer claimed that
the giiils did the same kind of work as the men, and could be hired
"for about 50 per cent less; and that is the reason," he frankly
admitted, "we hire them."0"
The mold, strike breaking, the team system, and machinery have
all tended to lower the wages of both men and women cigar makers.
It is evident, however, not only that women have had little if any-
thing to do with the lowering of wages, which would doubtless have
been brought about by other factors if no women had ever been
employed in the trade, but also that women themselves have suffered
more from the reduction than men. At one time, when women cigar
makers were skilled workers, they received the same wages as men,
but the competition of the unskilled of their own sex has driven their
wages down to less than half those of men.
As in all other skilled trades, too, women cigar makers have been
seriously handicapped by lack of training. Women rarely serve an
apprenticeship, primarily because their short trade life makes such
education seem unnecessary both to them and to their parents.
Where a trade union is powerful, however, apprenticeship has been
made a condition of employment in the trade and women have been
practically shut out. The Bohemian women of the seventies were
thoroughly trained in their own country. But since their day few
women have acquired skill as cigar makers, though the occupation
seems peculiarly adapted to them and one in which they should be
able to acquire proficiency equal to that of men.
PAPER AND PRINTING INDUSTRIES.
In their employment in the paper and printing industries it is
sometimes considered that women have departed from their natural
sphere of work and have invaded that of men. In many cases, how-
ever, women have been employed since the beginning of the industry,
« American Workman, September 30, 1871.
6 Cigar Makers' Official Journal, December 24, 1877.
cldem, December, 1876.
<i Third Annual Report of the New York Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1885, p. 18.
206 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
and, according to Table XV (page 257) , the proportion of women to the
total number of employees in the entire group decreased bet ween 1850
and 1900, or, if the figures for 1850 be questioned, between 1870 and
1900. Meanwhile, however, the number of women engaged in this
group of industries increased from 7,027 in 1850 to 73,879 in 1900.
In 1905 the number had increased to 90,580, and the proportion to
25.9, or 1.1 per cent higher than in 1900.a
PAPEE MAKING.
The chief decrease in the proportion of women appears to have
taken place in the manufacture of paper and wood pulp, which was
relatively a far more important industry for women in 1850 than it is
to-day. It is noticeable, too, that in card cutting and designing
and in the manufacture of envelopes the proportion of women has
declined. Other industries, too, show the effect of the introduction
of heavy machinery in the displacement of women by men.
In the making of paper and wood pulp women were employed dur-
ing colonial times and the first decades of the nineteenth century, in
cutting and sorting rags and in "parting packs," or separating the
sheets between the different processes of pressing. In the first paper
mill in Worcester County, Mass., 5 men and 10 or 12 girls were
employed, and a few years later, in another paper mill which em-
ployed 10 men and 11 girls, it was said that the wages of "ordinary
workmen and girls" were about 75 cents a week, with board.6 But
in 1797, according to the report of a traveler,6 women were employed
in a paper mill in Pennsylvania at a dollar a week. In the early
part of the nineteenth century a paper mill with one engine for
grinding rags employed, says one account, about 7 men and 10 or 12
girls, the wages of the latter averaging about a dollar and a half a
week, half paid in cash and the other half in board. d
About 1825 the Fourdrinier machine for making paper was intro-
duced, and in 1826, out of some 50 paper mills in Massachusetts
which were said to give employment to from 1,300 to 1,400 men,
boys, and girls, 6 were on the machine principle. e In 1849 it was
stated that in operating a machine 84 inches wide 2 men and 4
girls were required/ By 1825, moreover, the custom of paying the
women employed in paper mills partly in board was probably done
a Special Reports of the Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part I, p. 40.
6 Crane, E. B., "Early Paper Mills in Massachusetts." Collections of the Worcester
Society of Antiquity, Vol. VII, pp. 121, 127.
c Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels Through North America, Vol. II,
p. 258.
dGreeley and others, Great Industries of the United States, 1872, pp. 206, 207.
«Merrimack Journal, November 10, 1826.
/Transactions of American Institute, 1849, p. 412. Quoted in Bishop, History of
American Manufactures, 1868 edition, Vol. I, pp. 210, 211,
CHAPTER VI. OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 207
'away with, for in that year, and again in 1835, their wages were given
as from S3 to $4 per week.0 In 1845 they were given as from $3 to
$4.50,6 and in 1860 as from $3 to $5 per week.c Since 1850, however,
the development of machinery has been such that the proportion of
women employees has steadily declined, falling from 43.5 per cent in
1850 to 25.7 per cent in 1870 and to 16 per cent in 1900.d
PAPER -BOX MAKING.
Another industry in which women must have been early employed
is the manufacture of paper and fancy boxes. This industry, how-
ever, has only recently become of importance. In 1850 only 415
female hands were employed in the entire business. From that time
on, however, the number approximately doubled in each decade up
to 1890, though the proportion of women to the total number of
employees has changed little since 1870. e
In the early years paper-box making was a home industry and was
very poorly paid. Match boxes, it was said, were made in New York
in 1845 for 5 cents per gross, or 1 cent for 30 boxes. The Tribune
told of the case of a woman who was supporting her little children by
this work and who said that if she walked 2 miles to a starch factory
to obtain refuse at a penny a pail, for pasting the boxes, she could
"make a little profit," but if she had to buy flour to make paste it
was a losing business/ In 1851, too, paper-box making is said to
have been a very bad trade, poorly paid, and carried on in attics.?
By 1858, however, the paper-box manufacture appears to have
developed into a factory industry, run along much the same lines as
to-day. A factory in Philadelphia, for instance, contained five
stories. In the basement a man and boy covered the pasteboard
with paper by means of a machine containing two rollers. On the
first floor were the offices and warehouse. On the second the large
boxes which required sewing were made and finished, and there was
machinery for cutting. On the third were manufactured the largest
boxes that did not require sewing. Here, too, was machinery for
cutting, scoring, etc. On the fourth and fifth the small boxes were
o Sixteenth Annual Report, Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1885, pp. 254,
268.
6 Idem, p. 128.
cldem, p. 156.
<* See Table XV, p. 257. According to the incomplete census of 1820, 692, or 29 per
cent, of the employees of paper mills were women, but 717, or over 30 per cent,
were "boys and girls." (American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223, 291-
297.) In Massachusetts, in 1837, there were 568 men and 605 women, or more women
than men, engaged in the manufacture of paper. (Statistical Tables Exhibiting the
Condition and Products of Certain Branches of Industry in Massachusetts for the
Year Ending Apr. 1, 1837.)
« See Table XV, p. 257.
/New York Daily Tribune, August 19, 3845.
0 Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
208 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
made and here the most perfect machinery was found. The upper
stories were all subdivided, "and one part of each occupied by the
men who cut and prepare the work; the other by the women and
girls who finish the boxes. "a
The manufacture of paper boxes and other fancy articles is said to
have flourished in New York in 1869 and to have paid fairly remunera-
tive wages to the employees, most of whom were females and boys.6
In Boston the wages of paper-box makers in that year were, accord-
ing to one account, from $3 to $4 per week,c and according to another
account, from $2.50 to $3 .per week.d Wages in New York, however,
were probably higher, for in 1871 the New York Star* said that
there were in New York City 5,000 girls making paper boxes by the
piece for average wages of $5 per week, $9 being the highest. But
in Connecticut in 1874 the wages of women employed in paper-box
making were reported as from $6 to $9 per week/
As for other working conditions, they have probably changed little
since the establishment of the factory system in the making of paper
and fancy boxes.
MAP AND PRINT COLORING.
Before the invention of machine processes for this work many
women were employed in coloring maps and prints by hand. This
work required some taste and skill, and the women colorists were
spoken of in 1830 as well paid for their labor.? In 1845, too, the
New York Tribune gave a very favorable picture of this occupation.
At that time there were said to be in New York City about 200 girls
engaged in coloring maps. Their hours were not more than 8 or 9
a day, and their wages ranged from $3 to $5 per week. The work
was done by the piece, the girls being paid from 3 to 10 cents a
sheet, according to the quality of the work. A system of appren-
ticeship existed, the apprentices being paid about $1.50 a week.
But only "a fair proportion" of apprentices were taken, and the
trade was "not overstocked with laborers, as comparatively few who
work possess sufficient nicety of hand and artistic knowledge to excel
at the business." Much of the work was done by girls who had
oFreedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures, 1858, pp. 402,403.
6 American Artisan, August 4, 1869.
c American Workman, May 1, 1869.
d Workingman's Advocate, May 8, 1869.
« Quoted in the American Workman, Boston, February 11, 1871.
/ Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor,
1895, p. 505.
g Carey, Miscellaneous Pamphlets, No. 12, "To the Editor of the New York Daily
Sentinel."
CHAPTER VI. — OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 209
studied painting and drawing. In 1858 one establishment in Phila-
delphia was said to employ 35 females in coloring maps.a
The coloring of lithographic prints was another similar occupation
which was said to have employed in New York in 1845 200 or more
girls. This work was generally done by the week, and the larger
establishments paid from $2.50 to $3.50. In some establishments,
however, wages had been pushed down by an oversupply of litho-
graphers. " In these poorer establishments, if we are rightly informed,"
said the Tribune, " a great portion of the work is performed by appren-
tices who get at best very poorly paid and sometimes not at all."6
The busy season was about midwinter, when preparations were going
forward for St. Valentine's Day, and the highest wages were paid
at that time. The girls engaged in this occupation, as well as in
map coloring, were said to be generally well educated.
In 1851 there were reported to be in New York 2,000 females
engaged in coloring prints. Experts, according to the account, could
earn as high as from $3 to $4.50 a week on the commonest work,
but the average wages were not more than $2.50 a week.c
By 1869, however, the introduction of stencil plates had thrown a
large number of the map and print colorers out of employment.*
BOOKBINDING.
Book folding and stitching were among the early occupations of
women wage-earners, and appear to have been little above the
sewing trades as regards wages. In 1829 Mathew Carey referred to
the " folders of printed books" in Philadelphia as among the women
who received only $1.25 per week.* A little later, too, the Rev. Ezra
Stiles Ely stated that women's wages for folding and stitching books,
both in New York and in Philadelphia, were utterly inadequate for
their support/ Two years later 15 bookbinders in Boston employed
60 men, 30 boys, and 90 women, the latter at 50 cents a day.?
In 1834, however, a Boston bookbinder stated that it was an error
to say that girls in bookbinderies did not average over $2.50 a week.
The average, he said, was about $3, and many girls could earn $4 a
week for 10 hours' labor a day. Wages, he said, were higher than
oFreedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures, 1858, p. 183.
& New York Daily Tribune, August 25, 1845. In 1831 two lithographing and 15
engraving establishments in Boston employed 16 men, 10 boys, and 30 women.
(Executive Documents, Twenty-second Congress, first session, Vol. I.)
c Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
<* Penny, Think and Act, 1869, p. 19.
«Free Enquirer, December 19, 1829; Carey, Miscellaneous Essays, p. 267.
/Delaware Free Press, February 27, 1830. Quoted by Mathew Carey in his letter
"To the Printer of the Delaware Advertiser."
0 Executive Documents, Twenty -second Congress, first session, Vol. I.
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 62-1— vol 9 14
210 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
in the tailoring trade.0 In Philadelphia in 1835 wages ranged from
SI to S3. 60 per week.6 In 1835, moreover, the master bookbinders
of Philadelphia, in response to public agitation, recognized the
10-hour system and resolved upon S3 a week as a minimum wage
for women.6 And in the same year, according to an employing
bookbinder of New York, the wages of the women there ranged from
$2.50 to S7.50 per week on the same kind of work, the amount
depending on the industry of the particular woman.d Nevertheless,
the women had gone on strike, declaring the wages insufficient for
their support.
In 1845, according to the Tribune,* there were from 2,500 to 3,000
girls engaged "in the respectable binderies," of New York City, at
wages ranging from $1.50 to $5 or $6 a week. The average appears
to have been from $2.50 to $3.50 a week. The folding was, of course,
at this period, all done by hand, as was the stitching. The hours
were from 7 in the morning to 6 in the evening, with an hour for
dinner. The Tribune article stated that "in the large establishments
the girls are generally separated from the men who work at book-
binding, and are kept in tolerable order." According to the Tribune,
too, most of the women bookbinders lived in comparative comfort,
the majority boarding with relatives or friends and thus being "better
fed, lodged, and cared for than those girls who have to live at the
cheap public boarding houses." The price paid for board was given
as $1.75 to $2 a week, and extra for washing. The chief evils com-
plained of were that in some establishments the work was "dribbled
out by piecemeal, so that the girls on the average do not work more
than half the time," and that "the skillful worker just through her
apprenticehood is too often sent adrift to make room for raw hands."
The piece rates paid in large establishments were : For folding
single 8vo. sheets, 2 cents per hundred; for double 8vo., 3J cents; for
double 12mo., 5J cents, and for stitching common work 2£ cents per
hundred sheets.6 The rates were so arranged that the weekly wages
for folding and for stitching were about the same.
a Boston Transcript, May 30, 1834. See also the Sixteenth Annual Report of the
Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, pp. 269, 272, 276, and 310, for the
wages of women book sewers and folders in 1837, 1838, 1840, and 1860. In 1837 and
1838 the wages of book folders were given as from $3.25 to $5.50 per week and of book
sewers as from $3 to $6 per week. In 1840 the folders were reported to receive about
$4 per week and the sewers from $4 to $5. In 1860 the folders ranged from $4 to $5
per week and the sewers from $5 to $6 per week.
& Table G, p. 263, gives the number of women employed, the wages, and the hours
in the bookbinderies of Philadelphia in 1835 as ascertained by a committee of the
master bookbinders.
« Radical Reformer and Workingman's Advocate, Philadelphia, July 4, 1835.
& New York Journal of Commerce, June 24, 1835.
e New York Daily Tribune, August 20, 1845.
CHAPTER VI. OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 211
A regular apprenticeship to book folding and stitching appears to
have been customary. But in some establishments, it was said, girls
were engaged as apprentices and told they must work 6 weeks for
nothing, and then at the end of the 6 weeks were discharged to make
room for new apprentices.0
In 1851 a small army of book folders was said to be employed in the
Bible House and Tract Society's buildings in New York and in other
large bookbinderies. Wages ranged from $2 to $6 a week, the aver-
age being about $3.50. Book sewers, it was said, could earn from $5
to $5.50 per week. 6 A couple of years later a writer in the New York
True National Democrat c proposed that bookbinding should be
practically given up to women.
A book-folding machine was introduced before 1858,d but the work,
which had formerly been done by hand with only a knife to lay the
fold, was still performed by girls, though the number needed for a
given amount of work was greatly reduced. The sewing of books by
machinery was not introduced until within comparatively recent
years, and has never displaced the binding frames on the higher
grades of work. This, too, saved labor, but resulted in no change
as regards the sex of the workers.
Wages remained low. In 1863 book sewers in New York were said
to receive about $3 a week.* In 1868, however, one girl testified
before a meeting of working women in New York that at book folding
she could earn $4 to $5 a week, working moderately, and that girls at
hard work could earn from $8 to $9. A deaf-mute binder said that
she made $6 a week/ Virginia Penny, too, stated about 1870 that a
gilder in a bookbindery received $6 a week, or $1 a day of 10 hours,
equal to 10 cents an hour.? And in 1871 the New York Star* said
that 7,000 girls worked in New York bookbinderies for wages of from
$6 to $8 per week. The folders and stitchers, however, by hard
labor, were said to earn from $2 to $9 per week. In Boston, more-
over, in 1869, women employed by bookbinders are said to have
earned only $2 per week.*
a New York Daily Tribune, August 22, 1845.
6 Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
c Quoted in The Una, September, 1853.
<* Freedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures, 1858, p. 178.
«Fincher's Trades' Review, November 21, 1863.
/The Revolution, October 1, 1868.
g Penny, How Women Can Make Money, p. xiii.
* Quoted in the American Workman, February 11, 1871.
< American Workman, May 1, 1869.
212 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAENEKS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
FEINTING AND PUBLISHING.
As early as 1815 there were said to have been employed "in a
printing house near Philadelphia, two women at the press, who could
perform their week's work with as much fidelity as most of the jour-
neymen. "a In 1831, moreover, a writer in the Banner of the Constitu-
tion stated that he had himself seen "young girls very adroitly super-
intending the printing of sheets by a press worked by horse power."6
Five years later "one of the girls employed to work on the machine
presses of Mr. Fanshaw, " of New York, "had part of her hand taken
off by its becoming entangled in the machinery."6 And in 1845 the
New York Tribune reported that girls were employed on most of the
power presses run in book offices, as the labor on these machines was
light. d Again, in 1858, it was said that in Philadelphia, where power
presses were in use in all the leading establishments, "many of the
employees who tend presses are females, whose earnings average $4
per week."*
In New York, too, in 1863, women press feeders, it was said, some-
times received $4 a week/ But 5 years later one girl testified before
a meeting of working women in New York that she made $6 a week
feeding a press in a printing office 10 hours a day.*? And in 1870
Shirley Dare interviewed one woman press feeder in New York, who
said she received $7 per week for 10 hours' labor a day.A The girls
employed in feeding presses at the Government Printing Office,
moreover, had gone on strike in 1863 for $8 a week, but finally returned
for $7, which was apparently an advance over previous wages.* In
this case boys acted as strike breakers.
Women were not employed as proof readers until long after they
had been successfully employed as press feeders. About 1870 the pro-
prietor of one of the largest publishing houses in the country assured
Virginia Penny that he knew of no case of a woman acting as proof
o Thomas, History of Printing in America, 2d ed. (Archaeologia Americana, Vols. V
and VI), Vol. I, p. 358.
The incomplete manufacturing census of 1820 reported as engaged in printing and
publishing 94 men, 12 women, and 55 "boys and girls." (American State Papers,
Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223.)
& Banner of the Constitution, May 4, 1831.
c Public Ledger, October 21, 1836.
d New York Daily Tribune, September 15, 1845.
« Freedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures, 1858, p. 173. The Sixteenth Annual
Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1885, pp. 276 and 284, gives
the wages of women press feeders in 1840 as from $5 to $6 per week, and in 1845 as
from $2.50 to $3.50 per week.
/ Fincher's Trades' Review, November 21, 1863.
0The Revolution, October 1, 1868.
*New York Tribune, February 26, 1870.
< Fincher's Trades' Review, December 26, 1863.
CHAPTER VI. — OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 213
reader. Nevertheless, the Boston Stereotype Foundry reported that
it employed three young ladies to read proof, and paid them from $3
to $5 per week for 9 hours a day. A woman was also employed as
proof reader at the Bible House, at $5 or $6 a week.a
As printers women were employed at a much earlier date than is
generally supposed. Miss Abbott has found that even in the eight-
eenth century there were one or more women printers in eight dif-
ferent States — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsyl-
vania, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina — and,
further, that these women were both compositors and worked at the
press.6 Most of these women, like the nieces of Benjamin Franklin
in Philadelphia, appear to have been engaged in independent busi-
ness, though some of them may have been wage-earners. From the
beginning the employment of women has been much more common
in the "book and job" branch of the business than in newspaper
offices.
In 1830 the Boston Courier referred to the employment of women
as printers in the " establishments for book printing" of that city
as "an evil of recent growth/' The number so employed, it was
said, was "sufficient to lessen very considerably the calls for journey-
men and to dishearten all who, as apprentices, were ambitious of
distinguishing themselves as faithful and skillful printers. "c In the
same year Joseph Tuckerman asserted that, "in consequence of the
improved machinery which is now used in printing, and by the
substitution of boys and girls for men in the work of printing offices,
there are at this time, or within the past summer there have been,
in our city, between two and three hundred journeymen printers
who have been able at best to obtain but occasional employment
in the occupation in which they have been educated.' >d In 1831, too,
the editor of a Boston paper estimated that 200 women were employed
in printing in that city. *
Employment in printing offices, indeed, appears to have been at
this early date a somewhat important occupation for women in New
England. It was mentioned in 1834 by the women strikers at Lynn
as a possible alternative employment to shoe binding/ and a strike
of printers occurred in Boston in 18" 5 on account of the employment
of women in setting type.0 By 1836, too, a committee of the National
o Penny, How Women Can Make Money, pp. 30, 31.
& Abbott, Women in Industry, p. 246.
c Boston Courier, August 25, 1830.
& Tuckerman, An Essay on the Wages Paid to Females, Philadelphia, March 25,
1830, p. 13.
« Quoted in the Banner of the Constitution, May 4, 1831.
/ Lynn Record, January 8, 1834.
0 History of Women in Trade Unions, Volume X of this report, p. 46.
214 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
Trades' Union referred to printing, in the New England States, as
"in a certain measure governed by females."0
Wages, though low, were somewhat higher than in the garment
trades. But in 1834 there were said to be hundreds of girls in Boston
employed in printing offices, bookbinderies, etc., who earned only
about $2.50 a week, and were obliged to pay out of this $1.50 a week
for board.6
In other parts of the country, however, the employment of women
printers was not common until many years later. Nevertheless, a
Philadelphia paper frankly congratulated the Bostonians on having
found in female labor a means of cheapening the cost of composition
in printing. Attributing the destitution of " 20,000 females" in
northern cities to "the American system," which, it said, had thrown
out of employment their husbands and fathers, this paper stated that
there was no reason why the printing business should not be turned
over to them. And, since "the labor of females can not command
more than half the wages that men can," it "would have a powerful
influence in reducing the expenses of printing."0 The next year the
Typographical Society of Philadelphia was agitated over a rumor
that one of its members intended to employ women as compositors,
but the rumor was denied. In 1835, however, a similar rumor caused
the Washington society to send a circular letter of inquiry to the
societies in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Baltimore. d
An attempt was made in New York during the thirties to introduce
women into printing offices as compositors, but the practice was
soon abandoned,6 and it was not until about 1853 that the movement
for the employment of women typesetters began to assume impor-
tance outside of New England. In that year girl typesetters were
employed on the New York Day Book/ and a strike for higher
wages among the journeymen printers of Pittsburg resulted in the
employment of women and girls as compositors upon the two prin-
cipal daily penny papers of that city, the Chronicle and Dispatch.^
Early in the next year, 1854, it was said that female compositors were
employed in the offices of three Cincinnati daily papers "which stood
« National Laborer, November 12, 1836.
6 Boston Transcript, May 27, 1834.
c Banner of the Constitution, May 4, 1831.
^ See "A Documentary History of the Early Organizations of Printers," by Ethel-
bert Stewart, Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 61, p. 884.
« New York Daily Tribune, September 15, 1845.
/ The Una, August 1, 1853. In 1868, however, the editor of the Taxpayer claimed
the honor of having been the first printer in that city "to instruct and employ female
compositors." The Revolution, Oct. 8, 1868.
g Idem, October, 1853.
CHAPTER VI. — OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 215
out against the demands of the printers' union," and that the Louis-
ville Courier had announced its intention to try the experiment.0
In Philadelphia a strike occurred in August, 1854, in accordance
with a resolve of the printers7 union, on account of the employment
of women. According to one account, the Philadelphia Daily Regis-
ter had employed two women as typesetters in a separate office,6
and according to another, girls were employed in the jobbing depart-
ment.0 Shortly before this time trouble had occurred at Mount
Vernon, Ohio, on account of the refusal of a printer employed on the
Home Visitor to give necessary instructions to a girl employed on
Mrs. Amelia Bloomer's paper, the Lily, which was printed in the same
establishment. It was found that the employees of the office had
signed an agreement never to work with or instruct a woman, and
they were promptly dismissed and their places filled by four women
and three men.d Strikes on account of the employment of women
and resolutions of trade unions denouncing their employment soon
became common. A long discussion of the " woman question " at the
national convention of 1854 resulted in turning the subject over to
the local unions, and it was not until 1869 that the national union
admitted women to full membership/
About this time, too, Miss Annie E. MacDowell started in Phila-
delphia the Woman's Advocate, all the work on which, including the
typesetting, was done by women. Not being able to find a male
printer in Philadelphia who was willing to instruct a woman, she is
said to have imported one from Boston/ A writer in the Revolution
in 1871, who signed himself Ned Buntline, stated that nearly seven-
teen years before, when he published a paper in Philadelphia, he had
"hired women compositors from her office, at full union men's wages,
and they did their work well and promptly." ^
By 1864, partly, without doubt, as a result of the Civil War, the
introduction of women printers began to attract considerable atten-
tion. Three other causes of the employment of women were, how-
ever, prominent. The first and most conspicuous was the possibility,
already mentioned, of using them as strike breakers. The second
and probably most important was the fact that women would do the
same work as men for lower wages. The third was the influence of
the newly invented typesetting machines.
<* The Una, January, 1854.
6 Dall, Woman's Right to Labor, p. 68.
c Ninth Annual Report of Bureau of Industrial Statistics of Pennsylvania, 1880-81,
p. 276.
d New York Daily Tribune, April 22, 1854.
« See History of Women in Trade Unions, Volume X of this report, pp. 103-1 05,
0The Revolution, June 8, 1871.
if Idem, May 4, 1871.
216 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
The entrance of women printers into newspaper offices was usually,
perhaps, as strike breakers and often at lower, wages than were paid
men. In Boston in 1864, for example, at the time of a printers'
strike, women were substituted for men at lower wages. a In 1866,
however, when the Boston Traveller decided to reduce wages, it was
said that though the original intention had been to so reduce that the
women should receive less than the men, it was finally decided to
reduce both alike.6 And in 1870 it was reported that since the
strike of 1864 women had been employed on the Boston Transcript
and Traveller on full hours and had received men's wages, averaging
$18 per week earnings. c The women printers on the New York
World, moreover, who were originally employed as strike breakers,**
and of whom there were 25 in March, 1868, were paid the same wages
as men, 40 cents per thousand ems for day work and 50 cents for
night work, and some of them were able to earn from $15 to $20 per
week, in spite of the fact that, as they had only been tried for three
years, they were in experience scarcely out of the period that with a
man would have been apprenticeship.6 Women, however, after a
three years' trial, were declared by the World not to be as good as
men/ and were finally discharged and men substituted. 0 Usually,
indeed, in such cases either the women were discharged or their
wages were reduced.
A printers' strike in Rochester, too, in 1864, caused the employ-
ment of women compositors. But in this case, though the employers
had pledged themselves to give permanent employment to the girls,
they are said to have been discharged as soon as men could be pro-
cured.^
In the same year the employment of one female printer on an
Albany paper caused a strike and bitter denunciation, by the em-
ployer concerned, of the union for "waging warfare upon women
who are driven by their necessities to seek employment in printing
offices." To this a writer in Fincher's Trades' Review replied that
the trouble was not too little work for women, but too much work and
too low wages, and that the trade unions had always sympathized
with them and constituted their only hope of relief.*
a Daily Evening Voice, December 9, 1864. In one establishment, however, accord-
ing to the Voice, when the girls found that they were being employed at a 25 per cent
reduction from the wages paid even men "scabs," they "refused to work for less than
the men, and the employer in his strait was obliged to pay them equal wages."
& Idem, January 5, 8, 1866.
c Woman's Journal, January 29, 1870.
& Workingman's Advocate, November 2, 1867.
« The Revolution, March 19, 1868.
/ Idem, October 1, 1868.
g Idem, October 8, 1868.
& Fincher's Trades' Review, June 4, 1864.
» Idem, May 7, 1864.
CHAPTER VI. — OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 217
In San Francisco women were substituted for men as compositors
as the result of a printers' strike in 1869. In January of that year it
was said that female compositors set up the San Francisco Cali-
fornian.a And in December, 1870, there were reported to be 7
female compositors on the San Francisco Call, 10 in the office of the
11 Woman's Cooperative Printing Union/' and several on the Pioneer,
the woman's journal.6
A strike at Worcester, Mass., in 1869, also led to the employment
of women side by side with men at the same wages, sometimes $16 a
week, in one of the newspaper offices of that city.c
Strikes, however, were not the only cause of the substitution of
women for men as printers. The comparative cheapness of woman's
work, as has already been intimated, was a powerful factor. When
the Western Publishers' Association in 1864 passed a resolution rec-
ommending ' ' the employment of female help whenever it can be done
conveniently,"4* the typographical union declared that the pub-
lishers favored the employment of women merely on account of its
economy, and urged women printers not to work for lower wages than
men.6 In the same year, however, the Western Publishers' Associa-
tion established a school in Chicago for the instruction of women,
where in July 40 or 50 women were said to be employed at $4 a week.
About the same time the proprietor of one of the Chicago dailies
boasted that he had "placed materials in remote rooms of the city
and secretly instructed girls to set type." / In 1869 the employing
printers of New York followed the example of the Western Publishers'
Association and passed a resolution "that the master printers of this
city, recognizing the importance of female labor in our composing
rooms, do agree to employ females as compositors," upon which
the Workingman's Advocate, in conformity with the trade-union
a The Revolution, January 28, 1869.
& Workingman's Advocate, December 10, 1870; The Revolution, January 12, 1871.
cThe Revolution, January 20, 1870.
d The Printer, Jnly, 1864. At a printers' convention held in Springfield, 111., about
1860, resolutions were adopted declaring that the employment of women as composi-
tors had been found "a decided benefit as regards moral influence and steady work,
and also as offering better wages to a deserving class, " and that therefore this association
recommended "to its members the employment of females whenever practicable."
(Dall, Woman's Right to Labor, p. 92.)
« Idem, August, 1864.
/ Fincher's Trades' Review, October 1, 1864. A writer in Fincher's Trades' Review,
commenting upon the competition of girls introduced by this school, said: "The thing
has been tried before, and the boys have generally managed to take the whole of them
prisoners in a single campaign, and set them up for life at housekeeping. That's the
tactics for such emergencies. Marry 'em or find husbands for them." (Fincher's
Trades' Review, June 4, 1864.)
218 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EABNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
policy, urged the women to demand the same rate of pay as the men
whom they supplanted had received.0
The object of the employers was undoubtedly to secure cheaper
and more docile labor, and in this they were evidently successful.
In November, 1865, it was stated that the men printers were to be
discharged from the Boston Courier office and women put in their
places. "The compositors of the Courier/' said the Daily Evening
Voice, "have been receiving latterly, since they were 'cut down,'
40 cents a thousand ems; the girls are to receive but 25 cents per
thousand 'ems' for leaded matter, and 30 cents for solid matter.
* * * The women, * * * by this scale of prices, will be able
to earn about $7 a week by working 10 hours a day at an unhealthy
trade, which breaks down most printers before they reach the middle
age of life."6 Early in 1866, too, another Boston daily is said to
have discharged its men printers and introduced women.c In 1869
the girls employed in printing offices in Boston were reported to earn
$4 a week.d
In 1868 various estimates placed the number of women compositors
in New York at from 200 * to 500 / At first they had been paid, it
was said, the same wages as men, from 40 to 50 cents per thousand
ems, but at that time they received only from 25 to 45 cents, the
average being about 35 cents, f Women compositors were at that
time employed in the office of the Brooklyn Eagle, and one of them,
who had been fifteen years at the business, is said to have made, at
37 cents a thousand, about $18 a week. A speaker at a meeting of
the women's union in New York in 1868 said that "in many printing
offices, both in this city and in Brooklyn, many ladies were getting
30 cents a thousand." o The "Women's New York Typographical
Union, No. 1," however, established as its scale of prices 40 cents
per thousand ems,* and was said by 1869 to have raised wages in
several large establishments, notably the Independent, which had in-
creased the pay of its women from 35 to 40 cents per thousand ems.A
a Workingman's Advocate, February 20, 1869.
& Daily Evening Voice, November 16, 1865. Fincher's Trades' Review also spoke
of the opening up of the printing trades to women as far from being a humanitarian
measure, one which subjected girls "to torture, trials, and temptations, that may
prove their ruin physically and morally." (Fincher's Trades' Review, October 1,
1864.)
cldem, January 11, 1866.
<* American Workman, May 1, 1869.
« The Revolution, October 15, 1868.
/Idem, March 19, 1868.
Oldem, Octobers, 1868.
ft Idem, March 18, 1869.
CHAPTER VI. — OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 219
A little later, however, it was said that " the female compositors em-
ployed by the American Tract Society of New York have petitioned
for the same rate of pay as the men receive."* And hi 1871 there
were reported to l>e in N«w York about 200 " female compositors,"
who worked " by the piece, at prices 20 per cent lower than the men." 6
In 1875, the wages of women compositors were said to be 30 cents
per thousand ems or $10 a week. For the latter fixed sum they
were expected to set nearly 6,000 ems per day.c It is evident that
women worked for less than men, and this fact constantly tended to
influence employers to hire women printers.
Machinery, too, had some influence over the introduction of
women printers. In 1865 a contest between the Alden typesetting
machine operated by two women and a compositor from the New York
World resulted in nearly twice as many ems by the machine as by the
man.** The influence of the machine, however, has been slight,
partly because women have not the endurance to compete with men
in speed, but primarily because the union has controlled the machine.
As early as 1865, according to Mr. Malcolm Macleod, organizer of
the machinists' union, the typesetting in many printing offices in New
York was done principally by women,^most of them, it was later
added, from New England/ And in 1870 women compositors were
said to have been "for years successfully employed by the Harpers,
and — with the exception of the offices of the daily morning papers,
where their physical education has not left them the strength to endure
night labor — in nearly all the book and paper offices in the city; and
the work that they are able to do equals both in quantity and qual-
ity that done by men." o
In other places, too, women printers began to be employed. Miss
Susan B. Anthony stated in October, 1868, that she had received some
14 applicants for women typesetters, including one from the Orange
(N. J.) Journal for a forewoman to manage the office, and one from
the Galveston (Tex.) Courier for six compositors and one forewoman.*
a Workingman's Advocate, June 25, 1870; The Revolution, July 28, 1870; The
Woman's Journal, Boston and Chicago, June 11, 1870. About this time it was asserted
that the large religious publishing houses generally refused to employ women com-
positors. (The American Workman, July 2, 1870.)
6 American Workman, February 11, 1871. Quoted from the New York Star. In
1870 a female compositor in the office of the Bridgeport Standard is said to
have earned more at a piece rate than any of the half dozen men who set type in the
office. (The Woman's Journal, Boston and Chicago, June 18, 1870.)
cAmes, Sex in Industry, 1875, p. 85.
<*The Printer, July, 1865.
« Fincher's Trades' Review, February 4, 1865.
/ Daily Evening Voice, December 23, 1865.
0 The Revolution, May 12, 1870.
ft Idem, October 29, 1868. Miss Anthony was editor of The Revolution.
220 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
About the same time the Woman's Typographical Union of New
York refused the request of a Galveston, Tex., editor, for a number
of women compositors, on the ground that the wages offered were less
than the established price in that city.0 A little later there were
other instances of the employment of forewomen. One was employed,
for instance, in this capacity on the Christian Register of Boston in
1870, 6 and another on the Janesville (Wis.) Gazette hi 1871. e In
the latter year women compositors were said to have been driven
from the Chicago Mail by the rnen.d
In entering upon the printing trade, however, women were con-
tinually hampered by lack of training, and to this lack must be
attributed, in part, their comparatively low wages. It was early
complained that women were not allowed to learn everything con-
nected with the business, but were confined to setting a few different
kinds of type. This, it was said, was one of the causes of their low
wages. e And, when women compositors were declared by the New
York World not to be as good as men, the women replied that they
would be as good if they were allowed to serve an apprenticeship.'
About the same time a speaker at a meeting of the Women's Typo-
graphical Union of New York said that women did not expect the
same wages, as they "had not had the same chance to learn as the
men, who were apprenticed to the trade. "ff
In Boston, even, where women had long been employed, the lack
of apprenticeship was spoken of as a handicap. In 1865 the city
printing of Boston is said to have been obtained by an employer
who secured it by substituting girls and boys for men. "We would
like to know," wrote the editor of the Daily Evening Voice, in com-
ment, "if the city government of Boston will be satisfied with having
their work botched by female printers who serve no apprenticeship
other than to learn the position of type in a case, and the mechanical
operation of standing them on end?"A
Primarily, in order to supply this need for a systematic training
for women printers, the Working Women's Association of New York
proposed in 1868 to establish a "female printing office," on the coop-
erative plan/ The next year, indeed, there was a Woman's Coopera-
tive Printing Union in San Francisco, which was appealing to the
o Workingman's Advocate, November 7, 1868.
& American Workman, June 18, 1870.
c The Revolution, February 2, 1871.
dldem, May 25, 1871.
< Idem, March 19, 1868.
/Idem, October 1, 1868.
fldem, Octobers, 1868.
fc Daily Evening Voice, March 2, 1865.
CHAPTER VI. OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 221
public to buy shares. "The object of the selling shares," said the
San Francisco Mercury,0 "is to obtain capital to purchase more mate-
rial, in order that more women may be employed, and more young
girls can learn typesetting. Constant applications are made for
positions, which must be rejected, owing not to want of work, but
to want of type."6 It is not known what was accomplished by the
San Francisco Union, and nothing appears to have been done in New
York.
Early in 1869, however, Susan B. Anthony, at the time of a strike
of Typographical Union No. 6, of New York, made an appeal to a
meeting of employing printers for aid in the establishment of a school
for girls in the art of typesetting. "Give us the means," she wrote,
"and we will soon give you competent women compositors." Nat-
urally "her views seemed to meet with the approval of the meeting."0
But, also naturally, this move roused the anger of the Typographical
Union against Miss Anthony. It does not appear, however, that
anything further was done in New York at this time in the direction
of founding a school to teach women typesetting.
The proportion of women to the total number of employees engaged
in the group of occupations included under "printing and publishing"
has, however, steadily increased since 1870, when it was 9.1 per cent,
until in 1900 it was 17.6 per cent, and in 1905, 20.3 per cent.d Not
including 1,231 in "Printing and publishing, not specified," in 1870,
the number of women employed increased from 1,569 in 1870e to
37,614 in 1905. It is evident that this is one of the industries in
which women are gaining at the expense of men.
MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIES.
In many other manufacturing industries women have long been
employed. As early as 1820, 361 women, 10,467 men, and 1,083 "boys
and girls" were reported to be engaged in the manufacture of various
metal products, not including clocks, clock cases, and watches,
which reported 23 women, 103 men, and 7 "boys and girls." There
were reported also under lumber and woodworking trades 36 women,
2,360 men, and 240 "boys and girls." Fifty-six women, 2,306
men, and 116 "boys and girls," moreover, were given under chemical
industries; 4 women, 547 men, and 121 "boys and girls" under clay
and pottery industries, not including glass; and 79 women, 3,469
men, and 1,009 "boys and girls" under leather industries, not includ-
a Quoted in The Revolution, September 2, 1869.
& An earlier notice of this "union" occurs in The Revolution, July 15, 1869.
c The Revolution, February 4, 1868.
* See Table XV, p. 258, and Special Reports of the Census Office, Manufactures,
1905, Part I, p. Ixxxi.
« See Table XV, p. 258, footnote <*.
222 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS — WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
ing boots and shoes. No women, however, appear to have been
employed at that time in glass works.0
METAL WORKERS,
A large increase in the proportion of women employees has occurred
since 1850 & in the manufacture of " metals and metal products other
than iron and steel." A slight increase occurred between 1890 and
1905 in the group "iron and steel," which can be traced to the divi-
sion "steel works and rolling mills," and is probably wholly in the tin-
plate department, where women work at separating the sheets after
the pickling process. But the proportion of women to the total number
of employees in the group "metals and metal products other than iron
and steel" increased from 3.4 per cent in 1850 to 14.2 per cent in 1905.
Within this group the chief industries employing women are the man-
ufacture of jewelry, in which the proportion of women employees
increased from 7.4 per cent in 1850 to 30.6 per cent in 1900, and the
manufacture of watches, in which the proportion of women increased
from 14.8 per cent in 1860 to 50.5 per cent in 1900. There was a
great increase, too, from 2.9 per cent in 1850 to 22.7 per cent in 1900,
in the proportion of women employees engaged in the manufacture
of clocks. c
In the manufacture of metals the work of women has generally
been polishing, filing, soldering, tending the lighter forms of machin-
ery, and weighing and packing the lighter articles. Their increase
is due to a combination of labor-saving machinery and minute divi-
sion of labor.
One of the early occupations of this kind in which women were said
to be engaged was the rubbing of type in order to smooth it after it
had been cast in a mold. The type was rubbed by hand on a flat
stone. Little skill was required and the work was very monotonous.
As early as 1831 the type and stereotype founders of Boston employed
83 men, 29 boys, and 55 women. The wages of the latter were
reported to be from 42 to 50 cents a day.d In 1851 women type
rubbers in New York were said to be paid from $1.50 to $2.50 per
week.*
Women were early employed in polishing metals of all kinds, and
by 1868 there were enough women metal burnishers in New York to
form a "Female Burnishers' Association."/ In 1863 it was said that
a American State Papers, Finance, Vol. IV, pp. 29-223, 291-297.
& See Table IX, p. 250.
c See Table XVI, p. 258.
d Executive Documents, Twenty-second Congress, first session.
« Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
/ Workingman's Advocate, June 13, 1868.
CHAPTER VI. — OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 223
the silver burnishers in Philadelphia received a cent apiece for table-
spoons, of which they could do only 30 or 35 a day, making about $1.80
per week.0 But in 1868 the New York metal burnishers complained
that, on account of a reduction in wages of 30 to 45 per cent upon all
kinds of work, they were able to make only from $3 to $10 a week,
whereas they had formerly made from $14 to as high as $20 a week.6
A little later in the year a woman metal burnisher said at a meeting
of Working Women's Association No. 2 of New York that she could
make with slow work $8 and working very hard $20 a week.c And
in 1870 women burnishers in New York were said to receive from
$5 to $17 a week.d
As early as 1867 women were employed by one gas manufacturing
establishment in New York on the finer sorts of brass filings. But
the employer in this case objected to having his name given because
he thought "his male operatives would desert him were it known that
a part of their work is now done by women."*
In 1867, too, the Morse Twist Drill and Machine Company of New
Bedford employed 24 female machinists in filing of a light nature,
tending light machines, grinding drills, and other miscellaneous tasks.
This was said to be "a new branch of trade" opened "to female
labor." The women were employed in a department by themselves
and were said to earn good wages/ And in 1870 Mrs. Robert Dale
Owen stated in an address before "Sorosis" that "in the soldering of
tubes for steam engines and the like there is great scope for female
labor, and young girls are employed to bind the tubes with wire pre-
paratory to the soldering. This is not very hard work and is very
remunerative. "?
In 1872, moreover, women were commonly employed in weighing
and filing coined money in the mints,* and in the manufacture of nails
and tacks. In a nail factory at Taunton, Mass., in that year "numer-
ous women and children" were said to be "usefully employed."
They apparently operated machinery, for it was stated that a girl
running a machine for making leather-headed tacks could turn out
120,000 tacks a day.* They probably also sorted and packed the
nails and tacks and made paper boxes. The proportion of women in
a Fincher's Trades' Review, November 21, 1863.
6 Workingman's Advocate, June 13, 1868.
cThe Revolution, October 1, 1868.
d The Woman's Journal, Boston and Chicago, February 26, 1870. Quoted from the
New York Evening Post.
« Daily Evening Voice, March 2, 1867. From the Fourth Annual Report of the New
York Working Women's Protective Union.
/Scientific American, January 26, 1867, p. 62.
0 The Revolution, March 24, 1870.
» Greeley and others, Great Industries of the United States, 1872, p. 153.
<Idem, pp. 1077, 1078.
224 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
all hardware manufacture, however, declined between 1850 and 1880.
In 1850, 12.5 per cent of the employees were females, and in 1860,
11.8 per cent. In 1870, 8.1 per cent were women and 9.5 per cent
children, and in 1880, 5.8 per cent were women and 9.3 per cent chil-
dren.0 In the latter year it was said that women were employed
chiefly in packing the smaller articles of hardware, and sometimes
also in tending light machinery and as clerks in offices.0 In 1874
women brass finishers in Connecticut were reported to receive from
$4.50 to $10.50 per week.6
Watch and clock making, as long as they were hand trades, requir-
ing a high degree of skill, were carried on exclusively by men. The
introduction of women was originally due to two causes: First, the
fact that the industry in this country was founded on the basis of the
interchangeability of parts, which rendered possible and desirable the
extensive use of machinery0 and the minute subdivision of labor;
and, second, the difficulty and expense of procuring skilled watch-
makers. It was found that by the subdivision of labor and the
employment of comparatively simple machinery cheaper and less
efficient help could be employed to advantage. The women were
generally employed in the lighter work and in running the simpler
machines. As has already been seen, the proportion of women
employed in both these industries has increased rapidly, as the divi-
sion of labor and the development of machinery have progressed.
As early as 1853 a writer in the True National Democrat °" called
attention to watch and clock making as " admirably adapted to the
female sex," and about the same time women began to be employed
in this industry. The Elgin Watch Factory, which was founded in
1867, employed from the first a large number of women. On March
26, 1868, indeed, an article appeared in the New York Tribune which
stated that of the 250 employees half were women, chiefly farmers'
daughters of the neighborhood. They received, according to this
article, from 90 cents to $1.35 per day, while the men earned $2 per
day and upward.6 It was not stated, however, that the work of men
and women was of the same character. In 1872, moreover, both
a Tenth Census, 1880, Manufactures: Special Report on Manufacture of Hardware,
Cutlery, and Edge Tools, p. 8.
& Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Laborr
1895, p. 507.
c The investigation of hand and machine labor in 1898 showed that while under
the hand method only 4 operations out of 347 were performed by females, under the
machine method females performed or assisted in performing 517 operations out of 881,
or 58.68 per cent of the whole number. (Thirteenth Annual Report of the United
States Commissioner of Labor, 1898, Hand and Machine Labor, Vol. I, p. 196.)
d Quoted in The Una, September, 1853.
« Quoted in the Revolution, April 9, 1868. The average wages of women in the;
Elgin Watch Factory in 1908 were $2.88 per day.
CHAPTER VI. OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 225
sexes were employed in the Howard watch factory at Roxbury, Mass.
The women tended the machines which made the screws,0 and, doubt-
less, did other work.
As to the employment of women by the American Watch Company,
the Tenth Census (1880) made the following statement, the first of
the two paragraphs being quoted from the report of Prof. James C.
Watson at the international exhibition of 1876:
"There are many important operations in the manufacture of
watches by this method where the delicate manipulation of female
hands is of the highest consequence, and it ought to be mentioned
he iv that for this labor the amount of wages paid by the company is
determined by the skill and experience required, not by the sex of
the operative."6
Upon much of the work either sex might be employed, but it may
be of interest to note some of the items of work upon which women
are usually engaged, viz, the cutting and setting of pillars, the
drilling of pin and screw holes in plates, the cutting of the teeth of
wheels and pinions, the leaf polishing, the gilding, the making of hair-
springs, the setting of springs, the making of pivot jewels and balance
screws, the putting or movements together, and the fitting in of
roller jewels and jewel pins. Besides the machine shop and general
work and superintendence, some items of work usually performed by
men are the punching and press work, the brazing, enameling, firing,
and lettering of dials, the plate turning, fitting, and engraving, the
fitting of wheels and pinions, the uprighting and end shaking, the
stoning and oxidizing prior to gilding, the rosette turning, cutting of
scape wheels, milling of pallets, balance making and handling, and
the final work of finishing and adjusting.6
It is evident that by 1880, when women constituted 36.4 per cent
of the employees engaged hi watch making, as compared with 14.8
per cent twenty years earlier,0 the industry had practically assumed
its present form. Since that date, however, women have, to a certain
extent, been substituted for men through further subdivisions of labor
and changes in methods. The process of assembling, for instance,
which was for years almost exclusively men's work and which re-
quired expert watchmakers, has been subdivided and in part assigned
to women. This change was made at a comparatively early date at
Waltham, but was not effected at Elgin until the strike of 1897-98.
WOOD, CHEMICAL, CLAY, AND GLASS WORKERS.
The proportion of women to the total number of employees in the
group of industries "lumber and its remanufactures," was precisely
the same in 1850, 1870, and 1905.d In the manufacture of furniture,
a Greeley and others, Great Industries of the United States, 1872, pp. 78, 79.
& Tenth Census, 1880, Manufactures: Special Report on Manufactures of Inter-
changeable Mechanism, p. 62.
c See Table XVI, p. 258.
d See Table IX, p. 250. The figures for 1850 were, of course, for all females em-
ployed, including girls under 16.
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 62-1— vofc 9 15
226 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
including cabinetmaking, repairing, and upholstering, the proportion
of women appears to have declined from 7.3 per cent in 1850, or 8.8
per cent hi 1870, to 3.7 per cent in 1900.° This decline is due to the
use of machinery and other labor-saving devices in the work usually
performed by women.
Women have long been employed in various ways in upholstering.
In the days of hair-seated furniture they prepared the hair, and even
wove the haircloth. Later they still prepared the hair cushions.
As early as 1853 it was said that in New York they could earn from
$3 to $5 per week preparing the hair for the seats of railroad cars.6
And in 1864 100 females were said to have been employed at Pough-
keepsie, N. Y., in putting seats in cane-bottomed chairs.6
Women have also long been employed hi considerable numbers in
the manufacture of chemicals. In 1872, in an establishment at
Providence, R. I., where cream of tartar was made, it was said that
45 girls and 8 men were employed. d The proportion of women to
the total number of employees in this entire group of industries, how-
ever, though it rose to 14.1 per cent in 1900, has usually been under
10 per cent.* The proportion of women has increased decidedly,
however, in the manufacture of druggists' preparations and patent
medicines/ Most of the women in this group have been employed
in labeling and packing.
The proportion of women to the total number of employees engaged
in the manufacture of "clay, glass, and stone products," though
small, shows a decided increase, all of which has occurred since 1880.*
This increase has been mainly hi the group "pottery, terra cotta, and
fire-clay products," in which the proportion of women employees
increased from 1.8 per cent in 1850 to 10.3 per cent in 1900, and in the
manufacture of glass, in which the proportion of women employees
increased from 1.7 per cent in 1850 to 6.7 per cent in 1900/
As has already been seen, the manufacturing census of 1820 did not
report any women as engaged in the manufacture of glass. In a
description, moreover, of the Bethany Glass Factory, at Bethany,
Pa., in 1829, it was stated that 40 men and 8 boys were employed,
but women were not mentioned.? But in 1830 it was said that the
New England Glass Bottle Company at East Cambridge, Mass., em-
ployed some 80 men and boys and about a dozen girls. The latter
a See Table XVI, p. 259 . The documents relative to the manufactures in the United
States (Executive Documents, Twenty-second Congress, first session, pp. 137, 147,
293, 493) showed over 200 women employed in chair factories in Massachusetts in 1831.
6 New York Daily Tribune, June 29, 1853.
cFincher's Trades' Review, May 28, 1864.
d Greeley and others, Great Industries of the United States, 1872, p. 1112.
« See Table IX, p. 250.
/See Table XVI, p. 258.
0 Hazard's Register, February 1829, Vol. Ill, p. 135.
CHAPTER VI. OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 227
were engaged in covering with willows the carboys, demijohns, etc. a
The Boston and Sandwich Glass Company employed in 1831, more-
over, about 130 men, 46 boys under 16 years of age, and 5 women.
The latter were engaged in painting glass and were paid $1.20 per
day.6 There is, however, no evidence of the employment of any
women in the Dyottville Glass Works near Philadelphia where, in
1833, 300 men and boys were employed.0 There the demijohns
appear to have been covered with wicker by men, with boys as
apprentices. In 1844, however, we again hear of women in the
industry, this time in a glass factory at Pittsburg where the demi-
johns were covered by girls " belonging to the families of the blowers. "d
In 1845 the wages of women glass makers are reported to have
been 44.8 cents per day, in 1850, 55.7 cents per day, and in 1855, 59
cents per day/
By 1880 women and children were employed in the packing and
boys hi the gathering of glass, especially of glassware. Out of 741
females over 15 years of age in that year employed in glass works,
513 were employed in glassware manufactories, most of the others
being employed in the manufacture of green glass/
Since 1880, however, the number of women has nearly doubled in
each decade, and they have come to be largely employed in the fin-
ishing and decorating departments as well as in packing. But
between 1900 and 1905 there was a slight decrease in the number
of women and children employed in the packing and finishing depart-
ments and an increase in the number in the decorating department.
The total result was a slight decrease in the number of women
employed in the industry but an increase in their wages, due to the
fact that the decorators are higher paid than the packers or finishers. 0
The development of the various kinds of glass manufacture,*
especially the manufacture of light and fancy articles, together with
division of labor, have brought women into the glass industry.
a Delaware Free Press, May 8, 1830; Mechanics' Press, Utica. March 13, 1830.
Quoted from the Lowell Journal.
& Executive Documents, Twenty-second Congress, first session, Vol. I, p. 123.
c Boston Courier, May 6, 1833.
d The New World, December 7, 1844.
« Sixteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor,
1885, pp. 283, 292, and 299.
/Tenth Census, 1880, Manufactures: Special Report on the Manufacture of Glass, by
J. D. Weeks, p. 5.
f Special Reports of the Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part III, p. 838.
^ In 1908 a New York glass worker stated that in one establishment in that city
where art-glass lamp shades were made two girls were employed to wrap copper foils
around the glass, and added that they entered the art-glass trade about two years ago.
In New York City they entered the silvering room (room for making mirrors), he said,
about five years before.
228 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EABNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
WOMEN IN OTHER INDUSTRIES.
Women have been employed in many other industries. The num-
ber engaged in the manufacture of electric apparatus and supplies
increased from 72 in 1880 to 6,158 in 1900, and from 5.7 per cent
of all the employees in 1880 to 15.1 per cent in 1900. An even
more remarkable increase in the proportion of women employees has
occurred in the making of soap and candles. In 1850 women con-
stituted only 5.5 per cent of the persons engaged in this industry
and in 1900 21.8 per cent.0 The first of these industries (the manu-
facture of electric apparatus and supplies) is, however, a new industry
for both men and women, and consequently the women employed
have not displaced men, unless it be considered that they have dis-
placed potential men. The making of soap and candles is an indus-
try which formerly belonged primarily to women as part of the
routine of maintaining the home ; it is one of the numerous industries
which, when carried on in the home for household consumption, has
been part of woman's burden, and when carried on for sale or as a
wholesale business has been appropriated by man.
In 1851 in one establishment in New York, out of 30 hands employed
in packing soap, 20 were girls. The business of fancy soap making
and the preparation of perfumery was said to employ in that year
from 600 to 700 girls in New York City and from 3,000 to 5,000 in
the country. In the city the average wages were given as $4 a week
and in the country as about $3 a week.6 In 1870 buckles were
said to be made mostly by women. The thick wires were bent,
according to a description given by Mrs. Robert Dale Owen before
" Sorosis," by machinery and were worked by women into the
required form, the teeth being afterwards sharpened and pointed.0
At Newhallville, Conn., in 1871, 300 girls are said to have been
engaged in making rifle cartridges.^ And in 1872, out of about 150
hands employed by the American Lead Pencil Company, Hudson
City, N. J., about 80 were women.*
The saddlery business in the New England States, like the manu-
facture of brushes and whips, was referred to in 1836 by a committee
of the National Trades' Union as "in a certain measure governed by
females."7 And in 1851 it was said that in New York "a large
number of females" were employed at very fair wages in the manu-
facture of leather goods.0 They appear to have been engaged in
« See Table XVI, pp. 258, 259.
l> Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
cThe Revolution, March 24, 1870.
dldem, February 16, 1871.
«Greeley and others, Great Industries of the United States, 1872, p. 737.
/National Laborer, November 12, 1836. Reprinted in Documentary History of
.American Industrial Society, Vol. VI, p. 285.
0 Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
CHAPTER VI. OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 229
sewing by hand the lighter materials. It was many years later before
sewing machines were used in the business, but when, about 1863, the
Wax-thread machine began to be used in the manufacture of harness °
it was doubtless operated by men. In 1871, however, a "lady"
saddlery and harness dealer in Chicago is said to have employed more
than a hundred women upon "blankets, nets, wraps, etc."6 And in
1875 sewing girls engaged in the manufacture of leather were said to
make $4 a week in Kentucky and $9 a week in California.0 In the
tanning of leather the introduction of machinery has recently caused
a substitution of women and girls for men, the proportion of women
to the total number of employees in the division "leather, tanned,
curried, and finished" increasing from 0.6 per cent in 1890 to 2.3 per
cent in 1900, or from 264 in 1890 to 1,173 in 1900, an increase of
344.3 per cent/*
In the manufacture of rubber and elastic goods a large proportion
of the employees have always been women. In 1850 females consti-
tuted 60.7 per cent of all the workers in the industry. One india
rubber factory in New York in 1853 is said to have employed between
200 and 250 hands, about 120 of whom were women. The hours were
from 7 a, m. to 6 p. m. and wages from $2.50 to $6 a week for the girls,
boys, and apprentices, and from $5 to $12 a week for the men. The
young women, according to the account, were employed in cutting
the rubber into garments and pressing the edges together to form the
seams, and they worked in large well-ventilated and well-lighted
rooms.* In 1860 the proportion of women employees in the indus-
try appears to have decreased to 35.2 per cent, and it has fluctuated
considerably since that time, but has always remained over 35 pei
cent of the total number of employees.
The match industry, though small numerically in its employment
of women, is important because of the danger, which it has always
involved in this country, of phosphorus poisoning. The number of
women employed, according to the census figures, increased from
540 in 1850 to 1,120 in 1880, and then decreased to 793 in 1900, increas-
ing again, however, to 1,248 in 1905. Meanwhile the proportion of
women to the total number of employees decreased from 52.9 per
cent in 1850 to 38.7 per cent in 1900/ but rose to 39.2 per cent in
1905.0 The introduction of improved machinery is responsible for
« Depew, One Hundred Years of American Commerce, Vol. II. "The Harness and
Saddlery Trade," by Albert Morsback.
6 The Revolution, May 25, 1871.
c Young, Labor in Europe and America, 1875, p. 774. (United States Bureau of
Statistics, Treasury Department.)
d Twelfth Census, Manufactures, 1900, Part I, p. cxxiv, and Part III, Selected In-
dustries, pp. 713, 714.
« New York Daily Tribune, June 17, 1853.
/See Table XVI, p. 259.
a Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part I, p. 13.
230 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
the decrease. Formerly hand work was used in most of the processes,
and little or no skill was required. In 1866 a committee of the Eight-
Hour League and Trades' Assembly of Detroit found a large number
of girls, many of them not over 10 and some even as young as 7
years, employed in match factories in that city. All worked by the
piece, doubtless packing the matches in boxes. They were fined
if late, but were obliged to stay in the factories, even when not
employed, to be ready for the work when it was furnished.0 In
1872 girls were generally employed to box matches and men to dip
them. The Swift and Courtney and Beecher Company in its three
establishments was said to employ about 400 hands, the chief por-
tion of whom were women and girls. Machines for cutting the wood
were run by men.& From the beginning of the industry, doubtless, a
larger proportion of women and children than of men have been
engaged in work which has subjected them to the danger of
"phossy jaw."c
a Daily Evening Voice, May 3, 1866. Quoted from the Detroit Daily Union.
&Greeley and others, Great Industries of the United States, 1872, pp. 1229, 1230.
cSee "Phosphorus poisoning in the match industry in the United States," by Dr.
John B. Andrews, Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 86, p. 33.
CHAPTER VIL
TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION.
231
CHAPTER VII.
TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
Though the number of women engaged in the manufacturing
industries is still far greater than in trade and transportation, the most
rapid increase within recent years has occurred in the latter group of
industries. In 1870 nearly 20 per cent of all the females 10 years of
age and over engaged in gainful occupations were in manufacturing
and mechanical pursuits and only 1 per cent in trade and transpor-
tation, but in 1900, while the proportion of women in manufacturing
and mechanical pursuits had increased to 24.7 per cent, the propor-
tion in trade and transportation had increased to 9.4 per cent.a The
increase of women in trade and transportation industries was more
marked, too, among native-born than among foreign-born women.6
As for the proportion which women formed of the total number of
persons engaged in trade and transportation, this increased from 1.5
per cent in 1870 to 10.1 per cent in 1900. c
There is not in every case a clear line of distinction between occu-
pations in the group " trade and transportation" and the group
"manufacturing and mechanical pursuits." Thus most of the
"packers and shippers" are probably employed in manufacturing
establishments. Many of the occupations classed under trade and
transportation require a greater degree of education, skill, or knowl-
edge of the world than is usually demanded in manufacturing pur-
suits, and therefore they require more schooling, and seem to be held
in better social repute. In this sense the entrance of women into
them may perhaps be designated as an industrial advance; although
it must be said that the social advantage gained is by no means
uniformly accompanied by any great wage advantage.
The trade and transportation industries are peculiar, too, in that
their development upon a large scale is comparatively recent, having
followed in the train of the commercial expansion of the latter half
of the nineteenth century. Just as wholesale manufacture, together
with its handmaids, machinery and division of labor, caused the
industrial revolution and brought women in large numbers into fae-
o See Table IV, p. 246. & See Table V, p. 246. c See Table XVII, p. 259. ~
233
234 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAKNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
tories, so wholesale trade for widely scattered markets, with its
handmaids — the railroad, the steamship, the telegraph, and the type-
writer, has caused a commercial revolution and is bringing women
in increasingly large numbers into the occupations included under
11 trade and transportation." The continual overcrowding, more-
over, of women's occupations, intensified from time to time by the
invention of labor-saving devices, has tended to accentuate this
movement, the end of which is not yet to be seen. The history of
the employment of women in trade and transportation is, however,
short and comparatively well known.
This group of occupations has been divided into two classes, (A)
those in which the majority of persons engaged are probably wage-
earners, and (B) those in which the majority are probably engaged
in independent business. Of the latter class by far the largest num-
ber of women are "merchants and dealers (except wholesale)" and
the next largest are "hucksters and peddlers." In the former occu-
pation the proportion of women has increased, but in the latter it
has decreased.0 The occupations classed under B, however, do not
properly form part of this study. Of those in class A the most im-
portant, as employing the largest number of women, are the first
five in Table XVII, "saleswomen," "stenographers and type-
writers," "clerks and copyists," "bookkeepers and accountants,"
and "telegraph and telephone operators."
SALESWOMEN.
One of the favorite remedies proposed by Mathew Carey for the
low wages of women tailoresses and seamstresses was to employ
them in retail shops, for which employment, he said, "they are
admirably calculated."6 And in 1835 the United States Telegraph
made the following suggestion for the relief of the distressed work-
ing women: "Let them stand behind counters and attend to such
parts of the retail trade as is least laborious. Here at once would
be a great source of employment, which would tend to equalize
wages, and in other respects be advantageous to the public."0 In
1840, however, "few if any females" were said to be employed as
clerks in stores in this country. d
The subject was again taken up in 1845, when one of the
speakers at a meeting in behalf of the working women of New York
« See Table XVII, p. 259. For a description of the huckster women who were com-
mon in New York in 1845, see the New York Daily Tribune, Sept. 13, 1845. In 1851,
too, huckster women were familiar sights on the business streets of New York. See
Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
& Carey, Appeal to the Wealthy of the Land, third edition, p. 33.
^ « United States Telegraph, July 4, 1835.
d Mechanics' and Labourer's Guide, etc., to the United States, 1840, p. 256.
CHAPTER VII. TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION. 235
recommended, according to the New York Herald," that the work-
ing women memorialize the merchants in dry-goods establishments to
employ women. She stated, too, that there were "various other
branches of business in which men were employed for which females
alone were suitable and intended, " and suggested that the men in
these occupations "go out to the fields and seek their livelihood as
men ought to do and leave the females their legitimate employment."
The employment of women in dry-goods stores was also advocated
at this time by the New York Sun and the Tribune. "Let them
send committees to those stores," said the Sun, "in which women
should be employed and are not, to ask dealers to dismiss their men
to manly occupations and save for society a thousand -women from
want and temptation."0 The Tribune even went so*far as to suggest
a boycott of those shops which did not employ women. "All our
stores," it said, "mainly visited by women should be attended by
women. It is a shame that fine, hearty lads, who might clear their
50 acres each of western forest in a short time, and have a house, a
farm, a wife, and boys about them in the course of ten years, should
be hived up in hot salesrooms, handing down tapes and ribbons, and
cramping their genius over chintzes and delaines. They should
know better; but, if they do not, our women of intelligence and
means should take compassion on their less fortunate sisters and
for their sake refuse to trade where they can not be waited on by
females."6 Thus was the principle of the Consumers' League, re-
cently used to protect saleswomen and others from bad working
conditions, originally suggested as a means of introducing women
into the very positions in which they have needed that protection.
As late as 1851, however, there were few shopwomen in New York,
and the time when they should be employed was looked forward
to as the millenium of the working woman. A shopgirl was referred
to by one writer as "more fortunate than the great majority of her
sex," and the picture of "the strong youth, frittering away his
strength and emasculating his manhood behind the counters of our
retail shops" was pronounced as "sad to contemplate" as that of
the woman overtaxing her strength by working 14 or 18 hours a
day.* A little later the New York True National Democrat, com-
paring this country and England with Europe in the matter of the
employment of women in stores, stated that "50,000 retail stores
in our large cities and towns ought to afford employment and good
wages for 100,000 women. "d About the same time the New York
0 Quoted in Workingman's Advocate, March 8, 1845.
6 New York Daily Tribune, March 7, 1845.
« Burns, Life in New York, 1851.
<* Quoted in The Una, September, 1853.
236 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
Tribune, later joined by the Times,0 renewed its agitation in favor
of the employment of saleswomen, charging that "the effeminacy of
the half-men who come into competition" with women in their
narrow range of occupations was one of the causes of their low wages,
and advising wealthy women to l ' decline to buy at shops and stores
waited on by men."6
For some reason, however, few women appear to have been em-
ployed in stores until the time of the civil war. The hours of work
in shops in New York in 1863 were from 7 in the morning until at
least 6 and often until 10 or 11 at night, with half or three-quarters
of an hour for dinner.0 During and immediately after the war, how-
ever, the agitation in favor of the employment of women as clerks
in stores where women were the purchasers was renewed by Miss
Anna E. Dickinson/ the Rev. Henry Morgan of Boston,* and others.
In 1869 the American Artisan spoke of the precarious status of dry-
goods clerks "who occupy places * * * that should be filled
b\T female clerks."^ About this time women began to displace men
in retail shops and before many years the efficacy of such employ-
ment to remedy low wages and long hours had been tested by ex-
perience.
By all of these early advocates of the saleswoman as opposed to
the salesman it seems to have been assumed that when women
entered the stores they would step, so to speak, into the shoes of
the men clerks who had gone "to the fields" or "out west." The
factor overlooked by them was that, when women replace men, the
standard of wages in the occupation tends to be reduced to the level
of women's wages in other occupations. Once women were intro-
duced in the stores, however, not only did this tendency become
apparent, but the work soon proved itself so attractive, as compared
with other women's occupations, that the pressure of numbers served
further to reduce, wages. The hours, too, though they have been
gradually shortened, have always been long, and it soon became evi-
dent that the constant standing, which had been required of men, was
injurious to women. Other evils, too, appeared. The history of
saleswomen, then, like the history of other classes of working women,
early becomes a story of hard work, long hours, and low wages.
Even in 1865, when employment in stores was still being urged
as a desirable outlet for women from the sewing and other congested
trades, complaint was made of the competition of partly supported
girls. "In agreement with the testimony of a lady," said the Daily
a Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, Vol. XXXIII, p. 766.
6 New York Daily Tribune, June 24, 1853.
cFincher's Trades' Review. November 21. 1863.
dldem, March 11, 1865; Daily Evening Voice, April 8, 1865.
« Daily Evening Voice, February 12, 1866.
/American Artisan, August 4, 1869.
CHAPTER VII. TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION. 237
Evening Voico,a "a gentleman informed us that lie knew of young
women, whose parents had ample means for their maintenance,
now employed behind the counters of first-class stores for very
moderate compensation, while others in the same employ must of
necessity endure grievous privations and self-denials, because the
same compensation in their case is utterly inadequate to their proper
support. "
A method of keeping down wages was to hire young girls to be
taught the business, paying them little or nothing, and then to dis-
charge them as soon as they began to expect more pay. The
Philadelphia Saturday Night asserted in 1866 that in almost every
retail establishment in that city it was the custom to procure the
services of a young girl six months for nothing under the pretense
of teaching her the business — though she was a useful hand at the
end of one month — then give her $2 a week for six months and $3 a
week the second year, and discharge her the third year to make
room for new comers who cost nothing. It was said $5 a week
was the highest rate paid the oldest and best hands in the majority
of stores.6
In New York wages appear to have been somewhat higher, but
the hours were very long. A saleswoman in a first-class dry goods
store in New York in 1868 testified that she made $7 a week working
from 8 in the morning until 9 at night. c Another saleswomen
said she worked from 7 until 9 five nights a week and on Saturday
from 7 until 11 for $6 a week.0 About the same time it was said
that, while aa saleswoman in one of our Broadway stores will receive
eight or ten dollars per week * * * a man, at the same counter,
who does much less to influence trade, receives fifteen or twenty
dollars. "d
Saleswomen in Boston in 1869 are said to have received from $5
to $7 a week, only the cleverest earning the latter sum. Unless they
lived with their parents the cost of board was about $5 a week, leav-
ing, obviously, for the more poorly paid, nothing fbr clothing or
incidental expenses of any kind. At the same time they were
required, of course, to dress better than seamstresses or factory
operatives/
By 1870 the saleswomen of New York were sufficiently numerous
to form an organization for the purpose of self-protection/ and in
« Daily Evening Voice, April 7, 1865.
6 Quoted in the Workingman's Advocate, September 8, 1866.
cThe Revolution, October 1, 1868.
d Idem, February 19, 1868.
« Idem, May 13, 1869. Quoted from the Boston Daily Advertiser.
/ Idem, July 21, and August 4, 1870.
238 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EABNEES WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
June of that year the women employed in stores on Sixth and Eighth
avenues, Grand and Catherine streets asked the aid of the Clerks'
Early Closing Association in inducing their employers uto follow
the example of the Broadway shopkeepers and close their establish-
ments at 7 p. m. except on Saturday evenings." They were accus-
tomed, they said, to stand on their feet continually, not being
allowed to sit down, from 8 a. m. to 11 p. m.a It appears from the
accounts that the employees of the Broadway shopkeepers were
mainly men and had secured a reduction of hours through the Clerks'
Early Closing Association.
Even before this time the physical harm to women of long standing
behind counters began to attract attention. In Philadelphia, where
more girls were employed than in any other city, a large number were
said to be suffering from diseases induced by long standing. One
employer in that city, however, had already broken through the
time-honored rule of the trade and allowed his girls to sit down
behind the counters.6 In Boston, too, complaint of this rule arose in
1869. Because for the girls to sit down, said a writer in the Boston
Daily Advertiser,0 would make trade appear dull, they were required to
stand from 8 a. m. to 6 p. m. with the exception of an hour for dinner.
It was suggested that the constant standing position was probably as
injurious as the use of the sewing machine.
In New York where the same excuse was made for compelling sales-
women to stand all day, viz, that if they were seated it looked as if
trade were dull, it was suggested that the names of all employers who
forbade standing all day should be published in order that they might
be patronized.*
By the end of the seventies agitation began in favor of legislation
providing that saleswomen should be furnished seats and be allowed
to use them, and also in favor of laws limiting the hours of labor. The
enactment of such laws and the growth of great department stores
with their hundreds of working women, constitute the two great
changes since the sixties and seventies in this class of occupations.
From 1880 to 1900, though the number of saleswomen increased from
7,462 to 142,265, the proportion to the total number of employees
changed only from 23.1 to 23.3 per cent/
STENOGRAPHERS, TYPEWRITERS, CLERKS, COPYISTS, BOOKKEEP-
ERS, AND ACCOUNTANTS.
Even before the invention of the typewriter women were employed
to a certain extent as copyists. In 1870, for instance, they are said
a The Revolution, June 2, 1870. American Workman, June 11, 1870.
& Penny, Think and Act, 1869, p. 57.
c Quoted in the Revolution, May 13, 1869.
* The Revolution, July 15, 1869.
« See Table XVII, p. 259.
CHAPTER VII. TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION. 239
to have been employed in Washington to copy speeches and other
documents for Members of Congress, and in other cities lawyers
employed them to copy briefs and various legal documents. In Janu-
ary, 1871, a statement appeared hi the Revolution0 that many
lawyers in the city would be willing to give work to competent women
copying clerks if their orders could be filled on short notice. It was
further suggested that 8 or 10 women clerks should combine to rent an
office in the lower part of the city hi order to secure this business. For
this work women were paid hi some cases from 3 to 4 cents for every
hundred words, and in other cases from 8 to 31 cents a page.6
Though women were said to be sometimes employed to write from
dictation at a salary of about $600 a year,c their first experience
as stenographers appears to have been in the transcribing of notes
taken by men. Thus in 1869 the stenographer of the surrogates'
court, New York, wrote a letter to the Revolution calling attention
to " phonographic reporting" as an industrial field open to women
"in which the pay is remunerative, but into which they do not seem
much inclined to enter." For several months past, he said, he had
had all his shorthand notes taken in court transcribed by a girl, to
whom he had paid the same wages as to a man, and who had proved
very efficient. d
As long, indeed, as the use of stenographers was confined to court
work and to the reporting of long public speeches — work which is still
generally done by men — women gained little foothold in the business.
As industries, however, have expanded and commerce has grown, the
tendency toward concentration and the adoption of labor-saving
devices in trade as well as in manufacture have created a great demand
for stenographers, typewriters, clerks, and copyists for ordinary busi-
ness work — a demand largely filled by girls. This demand and
supply have arisen practically within a generation, and a new and
comparatively promising field of employment has been opened to
women.
Women clerks began to be employed about the same time or even
earlier than women copyists. In 1861 they were first employed in
the Treasury Department to clip or trim the notes, which soon after-
wards was done by machinery. The women, however, remained,
doing other kinds of work, and gradually their numbers increased—
most of the new ones being, for a time, war widows or orphans. By
1866 they had proved their efficiency, and were recognized by act of
Congress and their salaries were fixed at $900 per year. Men clerks at
that time received from $1,200 to $1,800 a year. In 1870, however,
a The Revolution, January 12, 1871.
& Penny, How Women Can Make Money, p. 11.
« Idem, p. 1.
* The Revolution, January 14, 1869.
240 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
Congress legislated that women clerks should be graded like men and
should receive the same salaries. As late as 1868, however, no women
were employed in the Congressional Library, or in any department
except the Treasury, Post-Office, and War.0
As bookkeepers and accountants the employment of women was
suggested as early as 1845, when, one of the speakers at a meeting
held in behalf of the working women of New York stated that
"there were hundreds of females in this city who were able to keep
the books as well as any man in it."6 And in 1853 a writer in the
New York True National Democrat said that, "as accountants and
bookkeepers, females would stand unrivaled."0
It was not, however, until the sixties that women began to gain a
foothold in this occupation, and then at much lower salaries than
were paid to men. It was said, for instance, in 1868, that when a
New York merchant found himself in need of a bookkeeper he em-
ployed a woman for $500 a year, whereas he had paid her predecessor,
a man, $l,800.d By 1870 several women were said to be employed
as bookkeepers in New York at salaries of from $16 to $20 a week.*
Another writer added, however, that men of the same capacity and
acquirements as these $16 to $20 women bookkeepers would demand
from $25 to $40 per week./.
Soon afterwards the increased demand for stenographers and
bookkeepers caused the starting of business schools where women
could receive training for such work. In 1871 S. S. Packard of New
York offered to educate 50 young women free for business.? Other
schools were opened to women and at first gradually, then rapidly,
they entered this new field of employment.
In 1870 there were reported to be employed in this group of occu-
pations, including "stenographers and typewriters," "clerks and
copyists," and "bookkeepers and accountants," only 9,982 women.
In 1880 the number increased to 28,698, in 1890 to 168,808, and in
1900 to 238,982. h Meanwhile the proportion which women formed of
the total number of persons engaged in these occupations rose from
3.3 per cent in 1870 to 5.7 per cent in 1880 and to 16.9 per cent in 1890.
In 1900, 75.7 per cent of the stenographers and typewriters, 12.9 per
a The Revolution, April 16, 1868.
& Workingman's Advocate, March 8, 1845. Quoted from the New York Herald.
Reprinted in Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. VIII, p. 228.
c Quoted in The Una, September, 1853.
<*The Revolution, February 19, 1868.
« Woman's Journal, Boston and Chicago, September 17, 1870. Quoted from the
Boston Post.
/The Revolution, October 20, 1870.
0Idem, February 23, 1871.
& See Table XVII, p. 259. The figures for 1870 and 1890 also include saleswomen, of
whom there were 7,462 in 1880 and 142,265 in 1900.
CHAPTER VII. — TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION. 241
cent of the clerks and copyists and 28.6 per cent of the bookkeepers
and accountants were women.a
TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE OPERATORS.
As telegraph operators women were employed almost, if not quite,
from the beginning of the business. In 1868 fifteen young women
were said to be employed in one office in New York,6 and later in
the year the American Telegraph Company was reported to have in its
employment about 80 female operatives, nearly half of them in New
York. Their salaries varied from $30 to $50 per month, while male
operators received an average of $75 per month and several over $100.c
In 1870 the salaries of women telegraph operators were reported to
be from $15 to $20 per week.d But in 1871 good operators, it was
said, received $30 a month and first-class operators $70.*
In 1869 Cooper Union of New York, in conjunction with the
Western Union Telegraph Company, established a free school for
teaching telegraphy to women. This was said to' have been the first
attempt in this country to give women a regular training as telegraph
operators/ Thirteen pupils graduated from this school at the end
of one term in 1871, Some pupils, it was said, graduated at the end
of three months.
By 1870 women were said to have proved "a great success" as
telegraph operators.? Even in San Francisco at that time a young
woman had charge of one of the Western Union branch offices and a
number of others were learning to operate the telegraph.* And in
1871 two women telegraph operators of New York built a city tele-
graph line, opened offices on Broadway and in other places, "purchased
a portion of the Manhattan Company's wires/' and started out to
"cooperate with all the opposition lines. "*
From 1870 to 1900, telephone and telegraph operators were grouped
together hi the census reports on occupations. The number of
women employed in the group has increased enormously, as has
also the per cent which they form of the total number of persons
engaged in these occupations. In 1870 only 350 women were
reported, and in 1900,21,980. Meanwhile the proportion of women,
as compared with the total number of persons engaged, increased
a See Table XVII, p. 259.
6 The Revolution, July 30, 1868.
c Idem, December 10, 1868.
<*The Woman's Journal, Boston and Chicago, February 26, September 17, 1870.
«The Revolution, June 29, 1871.
/ Idem, February 18, 1869.
g Idem, December 29, 1870.
ft Idem, Septembers, 1870.
<Idem, March 16, 1871.
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 62-1— VOL 9 18
242 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
from 4.3 per cent to 29.3 per cent.a Since 1900, two special reports
on the telephone and telegraph systems of the United States have
been issued by the Bureau of the Census, for the years 1902 and
1907. The data in them are not strictly comparable with the pre-
ceding census figures, because employees are classified merely as
male and female, with no distinction as to age, and because the
number of operators reported is an average for the specified years,
as reported by the companies, while the data from 1870 to 1900 are
made up from the number of persons who individually gave their
occupations as telephone and telegraph operators. On the other
hand, telephone operators are reported separately, and it at once
becomes evident that the great increase in the group, telephone and
telegraph operators, is in the number of female telephone operators;
for in 1902 there were 37,333 reported, with but 2,525 male opera-
tors, while by 1907 the number of female operators had increased to
the surprising figure of 76,638, while only 3,576 male operators were
reported.6 Corresponding figures are not available for women
telegraph operators. In 1902, however, the commercial companies
employed an average of 2,914 female operators and 10,179 male
operators. This must represent a considerable increase over the
number in earlier years.6 In the same year the railway telegraph
and telephone companies reported 30,336 operators and dispatchers,
but did not report as to sex.d Undoubtedly the employees in this
branch of telegraphy are largely male.
«See Table XVII, p. 259. Girls under 16 years of age are excluded.
6 United States Census: Special Report on Telephones, 1907, p. 71.
c United States Census: Special Report on Telephones and Telegraphs, 1902, p. 102.
, p. 104.
APPENDIX.
243
APPENDIX.
245
TABLE I.— PERCENTAGE OF BREADWINNERS IN THE FEMALE POPULATION 10 YEARS
OF AGE AND OVER, BY GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS, 1870, 1880, 1890, AND 1900.
[The figures for 1900, 1890, and 1880 are from Special Reports of the Census Office: Statistics of Women at
Work, 1900, page 131; those for 1870 arc derived from the Ninth Census, 1870: Population and Social
Statistics, pages 670 and 719-765.)
Geographical division.
1870.
1880.
1890.
1900.
Continental United States
14 7
1G 0
1!' 0
9Q 6
North Atlantic Division
16.1
18.7
22 4
24 0
South Atlantic Division. .
20.0
21.4
23. 3
25.0
North Central Division
9.2
10.2
14 4
16 2
South Central Division
17 9
18 1
19 6
20 8
Western Division ...
9.3
10.6
15.4
16 8
TABLE II.— PERCENTAGE OF BREADWINNERS IN THE FEMALE POPULATION 15 YEARS
OF AGE AND OVER, FOR CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES. CLASSIFIED BY AGE,
RACE, AND NATIVITY, 1890 AND 1900.
[From Special Reports of the Census Office: Statistics of Women at Work, 1900, page 21.J
Race and nativity.
15 to 24 years.
25 to 34 years.
35 to 44 years.
45 to 54 years.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
All classes
29.0
YLT~
35.0
50.4
45.3
15.7
30.6
20.1
37.5
48.9
47.4
14.6
17.2
TIT
19.2
19.8
37.4
16.4
19.9
IJTiT
22.5
19.8
41.8
15.2
13.2
972~
12.1
12.0
37.0
16.7
15.6
1L6~
15.0
13.0
41.6
16.2
12.9
juT
10.9
10.5
37.8
16.8
14.7
11.5
12.8
11.7
42.2
17.9
Native white, both parents native . . .
Native white, one or both parents
foreign-born
Foreign-born white
Negro
Indian and Mongolian
Race and nativity.
55 to 64 years.
65 years and
* over.
Age unknown.
Total.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
All classes
12.0
13.2
8.3
9.1
30.8
24.2
18.9
12.4
25.3
19.8
39.9
16.2
20.6
lT5
25.4
19.4
43.2
15.3
Native white, both parents native . .
Native white, one or both parents
foreign-born
9.9
10.7
9.4
37.2
15.9
11.2
11. G
9.8
41.0
17.5
6.7
7.2
6.1
26.2
13.8
7.8
7.7
6.2
28.5
13.6
22.2
31.1
37.5
42.1
19.9
15.2
25.1
26.3
38.3
6.5
Foreign-born white
Negro
Indian and Mongolian
TABLE III.— PERCENTAGE OF BREADWINNERS IN THE FEMALE POPULATION 15 YEARS
OF AGE AND OVER FOR THE UNITED STATES (AREA OF ENUMERATION), CLASSI-
FIED BY RACE, NATIVITY, AND MARITAL CONDITION, 1890 AND 1900.
[From Special Reports of the Census Office: Statistics of Women at Work, 1900, p. 22.)
Race and nativity.
Single.
Married.
Widowed.
Divorced.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
All classes
40.5
43.5
4.6
5.6
29.3
31.5
49.0
55.3
Native white, both parents native
Native white, one or both parents
foreign-born
27.5
44.4
70.4
59.3
25.9
31.4
49.1
69.4
60.5
18.8
2.2
2.7
3.0
22.7
8.6
3.0
3.1
3.6
26.0
16.7
23.7
30.3
21.3
62.6
28.2
26.1
32.3
20.7
67.0
30.0
42.6
47.9
44.8
79.8
(a)
47.5
52.9
51.4
82.2
42.2
Foreign-born white
Negro
Indian and Mongolian
Per cent not shown where base is less than 100.
246 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EAENERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
TABLE IV.— NUMBER AND PER CENT IN EACH OCCUPATION GROUP OF FEMALES 10
YEARSOF AGE AND OVER ENGAGED IN GAINFUL OCCUPATIONS, BY GEOGRAPHICAL
DIVISIONS, 1870, 1880, 1890, AND 1900.
[The figures and percentages for 1880, 1890, and 1900 are from the Twelfth Census, 1900: Special Report
on Occupations, pages xcii, xciii, and xcvi. The figures for 1870 are from the Ninth Census, 1870: Popula-
tion and Social Statistics, pages 670, 671.]
Occupation groups and geographical
divisions.
1870.
1880. 1890.
1900.
Number.
Per
cent.
Number. ^
Number.
Per
cent.
Number.
Per
cent.
All occupations:
Continental United States
1,836,288
100.0
2,647,157
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
22.5
4,005,532
100.0
5,319,397
100.0
North Atlantic Division
685,838
413,179
342, 155
374, 491
20,625
396,968
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
21.6
976, 675
558,270
537,090
529, 914
45,208
594,510
1,428,419
721,448
1,014,347
716, 893
124,425
769,845
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
19.2
1,844,310
907. 440
1,397,531
971,821
198, 295
977,336
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
18.4
South Atlantic Division
North Central Division .
South Central Division
Western Division
Agricultural pursuits:
Continental United States
North Atlantic Division
South Atlantic Division
North Central Division
2,689
184, 751
6,296
202,664
568
.4
44.7
1.8
54.1
2.8
4,945
264, 009
15, 402
309,039
1,115
177,255
70, 979
13,141
74, 203
12,444
6,488
1,181,300
.5
47.3
2.9
58.3
2.5
6.7
7.3
2.4
13.8
2.3
14.4
44.6
20,674
282, 498
81,821
378, 013
6,839
311,687
1.4
39.2
8.1
52.7
5.5
7.8
34. 683
334,946
100,019
492,306
15,382
430,597
1.9
36.9
7.2
50.7
7.8
8.1
South Central Division
Western Division
Professional service: a
Continental United States
North Atlantic Division
106,671
25,570
134, 617
27, 349
17, 480
1,667,651
7.5
3.5
13.3
3.8
14.1
41.6
141,025
37, 411
178, 961
42, 980
30,220
2,095,449
7.6
4.1
12.8
4.4
15.2
39.4
South Atlantic Division
North Central Division
South Central Division
Western Division
Domestic and personal service: o
Continental United States
1,066,672
58.1
North Atlantic Division
407, 927
200, 544
284, 025
158, 174
16,002
18, 698
59.5
48.5
83.0
42.2
77.6
1.0
437, 149
228,064
310, 300
181,602
24,185
63,058
38,500
6,757
13, 436
3,171
1,194
631,034
44.8
40.8
57.8
34.3
53.5
2.4
576, 772
309, 634
473, 897
247, 132
60,216
228, 421
40.4
42.9
46.7
34.5
48.4
5.7
691,717
380, 053
597, 258
340, 986
85,435
503, 347
37.5
41.9
42.7
35.1
43.1
9.4
12.9
3.6
13.0
2.6
13.0
24.7
South Atlantic Division
North Central Division
South Central Division
Western Division
Trade and transportation:
Continental United States
North Atlantic Division
South Atlantic Division
13,389
1,923
2.251
974
161
353, 950
1.9
.5
.7
.3
.7
19.3
3.9
1.2
2.5
.6
2.6
23.8
115,477
17,523
74, 976
10,958
9,487
1,027,928
8.1
2.4
7.4
1.5
7.6
25.7
238, 023
32,882
181,047
25,623
25,772
1,312,668
North Central Division
South Central Division
Western Division
Manufacturing and mechanical pur-
suits:
Continental United States
North Atlantic Division
South Atlantic Division
North Central Division
261,833
25,961
49,583
12,679
3,894
38.2
6.3
14.5
3.4
18.9
425,102
46,299
123, 749
23,658
12,226
43.5
8.3
23.0
4.5
27.0
608,825
86, 223
249,036
53, 441
30, 403
42.6
12.0
24.5
7.5
24.4
738, 862
122, 148
340,246
69, 926
41,486
40.1
13.5
24.3
7.2
20.9
South Central Division
Western Division
oln 1870 the classification was "Agriculture," "Professional and personal service," "Trade and trans-
portation," and "Manufactures, mechanical and mining industries." It was found impracticable to
attempt to separate those employed in professional service from those employed in personal and domestic
service, and the table therefore for that year embraces under the heading "Domestic and personal
service" those women engaged in what are usually known as professions. The number of those so engaged
is insignificant except for the occupation of teacher, which includes 84,048 women, out of the total of
1..066,672 women in the combined group, or 4.6 per cent of all women gainfully employed.
TABLE V.— PER CENT IN EACH OCCUPATION GROUP OF NATIVE AND FOREIGN BORN
FEMALES, 10 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER, ENGAGED IN GAINFUL OCCUPATIONS, 1880,
1890, AND 1900.
[From the Twelfth Census, 1900: Special Report on Occupations, page cxc.]
Occupation group.
Native-born.
Foreign-born.
1880.
1890.o
1900.
1880.
1890."
1900.
All occupations
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Agricultural pursuits. .. .
26.7
7.5
41.4
2.2
22.2
22.8
9.1
37.3
6.0
24.8
21.1
9.1
36.6
9.9
23.3
1.5
2.6
60.5
3.5
31.9
4.4
2.5
59.4
4.5
29.2
4.7
2.9
53.3
7.2
31.0
Professional service
Domestic and personal service
Trade and transportation
Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits. . .
a Corrected figures. See Twelfth Census, 1900: Special Report on Occupations, p. Ixvi, for explanation-
APPENDIX.
247
TABLE VI.-PER CENT IN EACH OCCUPATION GROUP AND IN SELECTED OCCUPA-
TIONS OF FEMALE BREADWINNERS 15 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER. FOR THE UNITED
STATES (AREA OF ENUMERATION), CLASSIFIED BY RACE AND NATIVITY, 18<K)
AND 1900.
[From Special Reports of the Census Office: Statistics of Women at Work, 1900, page 161.]
Occupation.
Native white.
Foreign-
born white.
Negro.
Total.
Both
parents
native.
One or
both pa-
rents for-
eign-born.
IS'.M).
1900.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
1890.
1900.
All occupations
100.0
14.6
100.0
15.0
100.0
==rr:
1.7
100.0
1 '-
2.3
100.0
-
4.4
100.0
4.8
100.0
100.0
100.0
16.0
100.0
16.2
Agricultural pursuits
41.2
39.8
3.8
16.2
5.0
15.1
.4
9.2
.6
9.9
.4
2.6
.6
3.0
35.5
1.0
33.5
1.3
9.8
8.4
9.9
8.6
Professional service
Teachers and professors in colleges, etc. . .
Domestic and personal service
12.7
32.6
11.4
30.4
7.5
30.5
7.8
30.0
1.8
59.7
2.0
53.6
.9
54.5
1.2
55.8
6.6
42.8
6.5
40.2
.1
1.3
.2
3.6
W6
1.5
1.3
23.8
.2
7.7
1.7
.3
4.3
.1
1.2
2.3
2.4
17.7
.2
12.5
'.5
1.6
.1
.4
1.6
.8
25.3
.2
11.1
.2
.9
2! 6
.2
.6
2.6
1.7
20.9
.3
17.6
.1
1.3
.2
2.6
.2
.6
4.2
1.7
48.4
.4
4.5
.1
1.7
.2
3.5
.5
1.0
5.0
3.1
38.0
.6
7.2
.1
.2
«9
.1
4.0
17.3
.6
31.2
.1
.3
.1
.3
W8
.1
6.3
18.6
1.6
27.8
.2
.3
.1
.9
.1
2.3
.1
1.4
5.8
1.1
30.9
.2
6.0
.1
1.2
.2
2.9
.2
2.2
6.6
2.2
24.2
.3
9.9
Boarding and lodging house keepers
Hotel keepers
Housekeepers and stewardesses
Laborers (not specified)
Nurses and midwives
Other domestic and personal service
Trade and transportation
.3
1.1
2.4
.6
.1
1.7
1.0
.3
.2
29.0
.4
2.0
2.3
.6
.4
3.4
2.5
.7
.4
27.0
.1
1.4
3.2
.7
.4
3.7
.9
.4
.3
47.6
.2
2.7
2.9
.7
.8
3.9
3.0
.8
.5
40.1
!s
.8
1.6
.1
.9
.2
.1
.4
28.8
.2
.7
.9
17
.3
2.0
.7
.2
.5
31.4
ft
(°\
(a)
P
H
3.0
£
<0i
(°)
ft
(a\
2.8
'.7
1.7
.7
.2
1.5
.6
.2
.2
26.8
.2
1.5
1.7
.7
.4
2.9
1.7
.4
.4
25.1
Bookkeepers and accountants ....
Clerks and copyists
Merchants and dealers (except wholesale)
Packers and shippers
Saleswomen
Stenographers and typewriters
Telegraph and telephone operators
Other persons in trade and transportation
Manufacturing and mechanical
pursuits
Bookbinders
.2
1.1
.3
.1
.2
.1
.2
.5
.1
4.2
.2
1.7
.6
.3
.6
.9
19.9
9.9
.2
2.7
5.3
.4
1.2
.2
.5
1.7
.3
.8
.3
.1
.2
.1
.1
.5
.1
4.5
.1
2.1
.7
.5
.4
.6
16.3
8.4
.1
2.5
3.4
.7
.8
.4
.8
2.8
.9
1.9
.9
.3
.1
.2
.5
.6
.4
10.0
.5
3.0
1.0
1.2
2.1
2.1
26.3
13.3
.4
2.3
5.3
.9
3.4
.7
1.0
4.4
.8
1.5
.8
.3
.2
.3
.4
.5
.3
7.4
.3
1.9
1.0
1.1
1.1
1.9
21.1
10.5
.3
2.6
3.8
1.1
2.2
.6
1.0
5.6
.2
.6
.2
.2
.1
.1
.4
.1
.2
10.2
.4
5.2
.5
.7
1.4
2.0
13.7
6.6
.2
1.0
2.8
.4
2.5
.3
.9
1.9
.2
.6
.3
.2
.1
.1
.3
.1
.3
9.7
.3
5.1
.7
.8
1.1
1.7
14.8
6.5
.2
1.1
3.0
.6
2.9
.5
1.2
3.5
<°
(°
(fl
8>
ft
ft
a)
3
(°j
(«)
a)
°)
•5
°>
aj
a)
°)
2.1
1.1
i
(°)
»«
.2
.3
.9
.3
.1
.1
.1
.2
.3
.2
5.7
.3
2.3
.5
.5
.9
1.2
15.8
7.8
.2
1.6
3.9
.4
1.7
.3
.7
1.9
.3
.8
.3
.2
.2
.1
.2
.3
.1
5.0
.2
2.1
.6
.6
.6
.9
13.8
6.8
.1
1.7
2.9
.6
1.3
.4
.8
3.0
Boot and shoe makers and repairers
Box makers (paper)
Confectioners
Glovemakers
Gold and silver workers
Paper and pulp mill operatives
ffi
w,
(«)
w
(°)
(°)
w
(0)
2.3
.9
(°)
B
(<0
W
(•)
.5
Printers, lithographers, and presswomen .
Rubber-factory operatives
Textile-mill operatives
Carpet-factory operatives
Cotton-mill operatives
Hosiery and knitting-mill operatives .
Silk-mill operatives
Woolen-mill operatives
Other textile-mill operatives
Textile workers
Dressmakers
Hat and cap makers .
Milliners
Seamstresses
Shirt, collar, and cuff makers
Tailoresses
Other textile workers
Tobacco and cigar factory operatives
Other manufacturing and mechanical
pursuits
a Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.
248 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
TABLE VII. — PER CENT, BY CONJUGAL CONDITION, OF FEMALES TEN YEARS OF AGE
AND OVER ENGAGED IN SPECIFIED OCCUPATIONS, 1890 AND 1900.a
[From Twelfth Census, 1900: Special Report on Occupations, page ccxxii.J
18
30.
19
DO.
Occupations.
Singles
Mar^
ried.
Wid-
owed.
Di-
vorced.
Single.o
Mar-
ried.
Wid-
owed.
Di-
vorced.
All occupations
670 5
612.9
615.7
60.9
68.2
14.5
16.1
1.2
Agricultural pursuits
650.1
619.8
629.3
6Ts~
46.8
23.2
29.0
1.0
Agricultural laborers
667.5
622.7
69.4
6.4
64.4
26.7
8.3
.6
Farmers, planters, and overseers
All others in this class
9.0
40.2
13.0
20.7
76.4
37.4
1.6
1.7
9.1
31.6
15.6
26.2
73.4
40.1
1.9
2.1
Professional service
87.9
6.9
4.6
.6
87.5
7.4
4.5
.6
Musicians and teachers of music
80.0
11.9
6.9
1.2
79.8
12 3
6.7
1 2
Teachers and professors in colleges, etc
All others in this class
92.0
64.0
4.5
20.9
3.1
13.7
.4
1.4
92.2
64.4
4.5
21/3
2.9
12.6
.4
1 7
Domestic and personal service. .
69.9
12.8
16.3
1.0
64.2
15.4
18.8
1.6
Boarding and lodging house keepers. .
Housekeepers and stewardesses
13.2
49.1
23.2
15 2
60.1
33 4
3.5
2 3
14.0
59 5
26.3
12 3
55.7
25 7
4.0
2 5
Laborers (not specified) . . .
50.8
26.8
21.4
1.0
49.7
25.3
23.4
1.6
Laundresses
33.6
31.6
33.2
1.6
30.1
33.3
34.2
2.4
Nurses and midwives
50.0
13.1
35.1
1.8
58.7
12.7
27.0
1.6
Servants and waitresses
81.5
8.2
9.6
.7
78.9
9.4
10.6
1.1
All others in this class . .
28.5
24.6
44.5
2.4
27.6
30.6
39.1
2.7
Trade and transportation
82.2
7.4
9.7
.7
85.5
6.8
7.0
.7
Bookkeepers and accountants
92.6
4.3
2.6
.5
93.0
4.0
2.5
.5
Clerks and copyists
90.6
4.5
4.4
.5
90.2
4.9
4.3
.0
Merchants and dealers (except whole-
sale)
25.9
24.7
48.2
1.2
25.2
28. 3
44.7
1.8
Packers and shippers . .
92.0
4.5
3.2
.3
92.3
4.3
2.9
.5
Saleswomen
92.0
4.3
o O
.4
90.7
5.1
3.6
.0
Stenographers and typewriters
94.5
2.4
2.4
.7
95.0
2.4
2.0
.0
Telegraph and telephone operators. . .
All others in this class
90.5
60. 3
5.7
16. 5
3.2
21.7
.6
1.5
92.9
60.0
4.0
18.3
2.6
20.0
.5
1.7
Manufacturing and mechanical
pursuits
79.0
10.7
9.4
.9
77.7
11.8
9.4
1.1
Bookbinders
94.6
2.3
2.9
.2
93.4
2.6
3.7
.3
Boot and shoe makers and repairers. .
Box makers (paper) . .
82.8
94.6
11.4
3.0
4.8
2.1
1.0
.3
82.7
93. 7
11.0
3.0
4.7
2.4
1.0
.3
Cotton-mill operatives
82.7
12.6
4.4
.3
78.8
16.3
4.5
.4
Dressmakers
74.9
12.1
11.6
1.4
69. 1
14.3
14.8
1.8
Hosiery and knitting-mill operatives. .
Metal workers * . .
88.9
90.3
6.6
5.9
4.0
3.2
.5
.6
89.7
88.7
6.6
7.2
3.3
3.5
.4
.0
Milliners
71.8
17.3
9.6
1.3
79.3
12.1
7.4
1.2
Printers, lithographers, and press-
women
90.1
5.7
3.5
.7
90.2
5.9
3.1
.8
Seamstresses
72.1
10.0
16.6
1.3
71.2
10.7
16.5
1.6
Shirt collar, and cuff makers
87.3
6.1
6.1
.5
85.8
7.7
5.9
.6
Silk-mill operatives
92.8
4.6
2.5
.1
92.0
5.2
2.5
.3
Tailoresses
79.8
9.5
10.0
.7
80.3
9.8
9.1
.8
Textile-mill operatives (not other-
wise specified) d
80.5
10.2
8.7
.6
83.9
9.8
5.8
.5
Tobacco and cigar factory operatives.
Woolen-mill operatives
76.7
86.3
16.5
9.2
6.5
4.1
.3
.4
76.0
82.9
16.4
12.1
6.8
4.4
.8
.6
All others in this class
84.2
8.0
7.3
.5
81.0
10.7
7.0
.7
o Includes unknown.
6 Based upon corrected figures. See Twelfth Census, 1900: Special Report on Occupations, p. Ixvi, for
explanation.
c Includes all workers in iron and steel and other metals.
d Includes carpet-factory operatives and other textile-mill operatives.
APPENDIX.
249
TABLE VIII.— PER CENT OF WOMEN 16 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER IN ALL MANU-
I ACTURING INDUSTRIES, COMPARED WITH MEN 16 YEARS AND OVER AND WITH
CHILDREN UNDER 16 YKAUS, MY G KOG It A I'l I ICAL DIVISIONS.
[From the Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, page cxxviii. The percentages for 1850 and 1860
are from the Ninth Census, 1870: Industry and Wealth, page 393, and relate to all "Male hands" and
all "Female hands," as no distinction of age was made.]
Geographical divisions and year.
Per cent in each class of total
for each division.
Per cent in each division of total
for United States.
Men 16
years and
over.
Women
16 years
and over.
Children
under 16
years.
Men 16
years and
over.
Women
16 years
and over.
Children
under 16
years.
Total.
United States:
1900
77.4
78.3
73.9
78.6
79.3
76.7
69.9
68.1
65.0
65.7
74.4
75.7
70.1
77.9
80.7
81.7
81.3
86.5
83.2
86.0
85.1
89.3
89.8
89.3
92.1
97.4
83.8
85.9
88.4
94.9
19.4
18.9
19.4
15.8
20.7
23.3
27.5
29.2
28.6
28.4
22.5
21.5
23.0
15.9
12.7
12.7
9.9
7.3
14.5
11.8
8.8
6.3
8.1
7.9
3.7
1.5
14.3
12.1
8.4
3.2
3.2
2.8
6.7
5.6
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
mo
100.0
100.0
100.0
1890
1880
1870...
1860...
1850
New England States:
1900
2.6
2.7
6.4
5.9
3.1
2.8
6.9
6.2
6.6
5.6
8.8
6.2
2.3
2.2
6.1
4.4
2.1
2.8
4.2
1.1
1.9
2.0
3.2
1.9
16.1
16.8
20.8
21.4
35.8
37.2
39.5
38.9
12.9
10.1
9.0
10.0
29.8
31.0
27.3
27.0
2.5
2.1
1.3
1.0
2.9
2.8
2.1
1.7
25.2
29.8
34.8
46.3
43.2
43.7
49.3
39.6
8.1
6.5
4.2
4.2
20.6
17.6
10.7
9.5
.9
.8
.2
.1
2.0
1.6
.8
.3
14.9
18.3
22.7
27.1
36.3
37.7
43.5
43.2
25.5
19.1
10.8
10.1
20.2
21.3
21.5
18.9
1.5
1.8
.6
.2
1.6
1.8
.9
.5
17.8
19.3
23.7
25.7
37.3
38.5
41.7
39.2
12.3
9.7
8.2
9.1
27.7
28.2
23.6
23.8
2.2
1.8
1.0
.8
2.7
2.5
1.8
1.4
1890
1880
1870
Middle States:
1900
1890
1880
1870
Southern States:
1900
1890
1880. .
1870
Central States:
1900 . . .
1890
1880...
1870
Western States:
1900
1890
1880 . . .
1870
Pacific States:
1900
1890
1880
1870
250 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNEES WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
TABLE IX.— AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS AND PER CENT WHICH
WOMEN FORMED OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF WAGE-EARNERS, BY GROUPS OF
INDUSTRIES, 1850 TO 1905.
[This table is derived from the Ninth Census, 1870: Industry and Wealth, pages 394-408; the Twelfth Cen-
sus, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, pages 3-17, and the Special Reports of Census Office: Manufactures,
1905, Part I, page Ixxviii. The figures for 1880 to 1905 are for "Women 16 years of age and over," those
for 1870 are for "Females above 15," while those for 1850 and 1860 are for all "Female hands," regard-
less of age. The form of inquiry differed somewhat for each census (see Twelfth Census, 1900: Manu-
factures, Part I, page Ixi), but it is not believed that these differences have affected materially the general
results as here given. Though the industries given, 1850, 1860, and 1870, however, were classified with
the greatest possible care, the difference in the nomenclature used at the different periods was so great
that, apart from the untrustworthiness of the early census figures, the results can be considered as
only roughly indicative of the facts. The figures for 1905, it must be remembered, however, relate
only to establishments conducted under the factory system.]
Industry groups.
1850.
Number.
Per
cent.
1860.
Number.
Per
cent.
1870.
Number.
Per
cent.
Number.
Per
cent.
Total.
225,298
23.3
270,897
20.7
Textile industries a
Clothing industries *>
Food and kindred products
Liquors and beverages
Tobacco and cigars
Paper and printing
Iron and steel and their products.. .
Lumber and its remanufactures
Chemicals and allied products
Clay, glass, and stone products
Metals and metal products other than
iron and steel c
Vehicles for land transportation. .
Shipbuilding
Other manufacturing industries «
86,787
115, 459
919
53
1,975
7,027
1,283
2,310
417
787
738
58
14
7,471
50.2
49.5
2.5
.8
13.9
32.3
1.7
2.3
4.4
2.6
3.4
.4
.1
3.6
110,285
121,164
2,019
46
3,721
11,443
2,324
3,539
663
937
1,743
188
1
12,824
53.4
45.0
4.0
.3
13.9
27.3
1.6
2.5
4.7
1.7
323, 770
126,686
115, 440
8,617
89
7,794
18, 425
5,050
6,771
2,093
1,344
4,993
218
6
26,244
15.8
43.3
37.9
7.8
.4
16.3
26.2
1.8
2.3
7.1
1.3
8.4
.3
(d)
7.5
531, (
204, 440
203,698
23,276
131
20,480
29,762
4,585
7,008
3,730
2,213
8,781
391
23,144
19.4
_•
44.8
46.7
16.5
.3
23.4
24.9
1.2
2.2
8.2
1.7
10.5
.6
(*)
6.3
1890.
Industry groups.
Number.
Total.
Textile industries a
Clothing industries b
Food and kindred products
Liquors and beverages ,
Tobacco and cigars
Paper and printing
Iron and steel and their products
Lumber and its remanufactures
Chemicals and allied products
Clay, glass, and stone products
Metals and metal products other than
iron and steel c
Vehicles for land transportation
Shipbuilding
Other manufacturing industries «
258,383
326,912
49,021
437
36,419
50,831
7,804
13,337
4,551
15,370
1,542
9
30,421
Per
cent.
47.6
51.4
19.7
1.0
29.7
22.5
1.5
2.4
11.3
2.1
12.6
.7
(d)
4.4
1900.
Number.
1,029,296
302,820
401,437
64,639
1,095
53,374
73,922
13,777
13,678
14,310
9,336
25,827
2,239
34
52,808
Per
cent.
19.4
40.6
55.9
20.8
1.7
37.5
24.8
1.9
2.5
14.1
3.8
13.7
.7
(d)
5.9
1905.
Number.
1,065,884
341,784
330, 875
79,804
1,191
66,301
90,580
18,510
16, 673
20,491
10,854
2,196
65
57,072
Per
cent.
19.5
44.4
53.2
22.5
1.7
41.6
25.9
2.2
2.3
9.7
3.8
14.2
.6
.1
13.8
a This is not the census group "Textiles," as given in the Twelfth Census. 1900: Manufactures, but
includes all the industries of that group with the exception of those here classified under "Clothing
industries." For the industries included see Table X.
b For the industries included in this group see Table XI. In 1905 "Clothing, women's, dressmaking,"
"Millinery, custom work," "Boots and shoes, custom work and repairing" and "Dyeing and cleaning"
were omitted as not carried on under the factory system.
c " Needles and pins" and " Hooks and eyes," which are included in the census group, are here omitted,
as they are included in "Clothing industries."
d Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.
e This group includes all industries not classified in the other groups, but is not the same as the census
classification "Miscellaneous industries," which includes a number of industries here classified under
"Clothing."
APPKNDFX.
251
TABLE X.— TEXTILE INDUSTRIES: AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS
AND PER CENT WHICH WOMEN FORMED OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF WAGE-EARN-
ERS AT EACH CENSUS, 1850 TO 1900.
[This is not the census group "Textiles" as given in the Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, but
includes all the industries of that group with the exception of those considered in the next section of
this report under "Clothing industries." The figures from 1870 to 1900 are for "Women, 16 years of
age and over," while those for 1850 and 1860 are for all " Female hands" regardless of age. The numbers
employed from 1850 to 1870 are as given in the Ninth Census, 1870: Industry and Wealth, pages 394-108,
and from 1880 to 1900 as given in the Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, pages 3-17. The per-
centages, too, are derived from figures there given. The form of inquiry differed somewhat for each
census (see Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, p. Ixi), but it is not believed that these differ-
ences have affected materially the general results as here given.]
Industries.
1850.
1860.
1870.
1880.
1890.
1900.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Total
86,787
50.2
110,285
53.4
'••'—• —
4.5
22.7
97.6
41.5
126,686 43.3
93 8. 3
1,365 32.0
204,440
699
2,129
44.8
258,383
47.6
302,820
40.6
Awnings, tents, and sails a. .
Bags, other than paper b
Belting and hose, linen c.
12
822
1.4
13.5
33
249
166
2,771
55.1
39.1
42.1
12.2
10.2
87.1
27.2
49.1
1,133
3,347
168
13,076
191
4
523
5,010
106,607
36.1
50.5
61.5
45.5
19.5
1.1
59.4
40.5
48.7
1,761
2,625
184
12,468
348
2
339
4,797
126,882
5
548
40.0
65.0
72.4
43.9
23.1
.4
59.0
36.6
41.9
.2
48.9
Carpets and rugs, other
than rag ^
2,305
37.0
4,316 35.7
116 11.4
8,570
88
18
492
1,480
91,148
Carpets ra;r e
Cloth, sponging and refln-
ishing /
A
700
71,549
Hi. 7
98.0
19.0
62.2
Clothing, horse s
Cordage and twine &
Cotton goods *
15
62,661
39.5
64.0
779 2i. 1
66,870 51.7
Cotton compressing
Cotton waste j
76
27.2
Cotton batting and wad-
66
3,451
19
31
2,938
[4,0
f
....
Cotton, thread, twine, and
yarns *
Cotton flannel carding .
Cotton lamp wick
30
71
6
53.9
Cotton mosquito netting
Cotton table cloths
Tapes, binding and web-
25
57
72
729
73.5
57.6
7.0
17.9
Thread
Dyeing and finishing tex-
tiles"* .. .
457 13.8
564 14.5
5 55. 6
680
1,393
16.3
15.7
2,038
12.2
2,298
11.7
4,253
14.3
Printing cotton and woolen
Curtains
Felt goods o
233
50
57
49
1,378
15.3
73.5
5.6
60.0
76.0
506
180
255
64
149
23.6
56.1
51.3
80.0
80.1
658
311
9
172
260
24.5
61.1
4.3
50.7
85.5
29
37 7
Flax dressed 1
• 102
38.9
13 1.7
Hammocks
Hand-knit goods . . .
1
a In 1870 and 1860 includes "Awnings and tents" and "Sails" separately enumerated, and in 1850
includes " Awning and sacking bottoms" and "Sails."
b Includes 16 establishments in 1890, 27 in 1880, and 33 in 1870, reported as "Bagging, flax, hemp, and
jute;" 64 in 1890 and 37 in 1880 reported as " Bags, other than paper.'5 In 1860 " Bags," " Bagging," "Cot-
ton bags," and "Filter bags;" and in 1850, "Bagging, rope, and cordage," and "Salt bags."
c No returns for 1870 and 1850. "Belts, children's," in I860. In 1880 there were 10 "Men 16 years and
over" employed in one establishment, but no women or children.
d Includes in 1850 "Carpets" and "Carpet weaving;" in 1860, "Carpets;" in 1870, "Carpets other than
rag." All the 37 carpet weavers returned in 1850 were males.
e Probably included under "Carpets" and "Carpet weaving" in 1850 and 1860.
/ Not given in 1870 or 1850. "Cloth finishing" in 1860.
g Not given in 1870 or 1850. " Horse covers" in 1860.
ft Includes in 1860 "Cordage," "Cotton cordage," and in 1850 only "Twine." In 1850 is in part included
in " Bagging, rope, and cordage," which is here included in " Bags, other than paper."
tin 1900 includes 973 establishments reported as "Cotton goods" and 82 as "Cotton small wares.
"Cotton small wares" in 1900 includes miscellaneous small articles made from cotton in a textile null,
such as tape, webbing, braids, etc. In 1850, "Cottons."
i No reports received for this industry in 1880.
k "Cotton braid, thread, lines, twine, and yarn" in 1860.
l "Tapes and binding" and « Webbing" in 1860 and only "Webbing" in 1850.
m "Bleaching and dyeing" in 1870; "Dyeing and bleaching," "Engraving, calico" and "Satinet print-
ing" in 1860; and "Dyers" and "Bleachers and dyers" in 1850.
« "Calico print ins; ""in 1860; "Calico printers" in 1850.
o Not given in 1870 and 1850. Fourteen "Male hands" reported in 18f>0, but no "Female hands.
q In "Flax dressing" in I860 there were 115 "Males" but no "Female hands" reported. The returns
were for "Flax dressers and spinners" in 1850.
252 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN TN INDUSTRY.
TABLE X.— TEXTILE INDUSTRIES: AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS
AND PER CENT WHICH WOMEN FORMED OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF WAGE-EARN-
ERS AT EACH CENSUS, 1850 TO 1900— Concluded.
185(
).
18tK
).
1870.
•
188
).
189(
).
190(
).
Industries.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num- Per
ber. cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Hosier} and knit goods" . . .
Jute and jute goods
1,490
64.1
6,323
69.5
7,991 54.0
17,707
302
61.3
57 5
40,826
720
68.5
60 3
53,565
2 064
64.2
45 8
Linen goods &
261
53.6
759 43 5
200
41 3
295
51 4
1 787
54 4
Thread, linen c
110
54 5
730
78 5
Mats and matting d
4
2 4
16 10 1
12
4 2
33
8 6
288
24 1
Embroidery
78
96.3
Carriage trimmings
3
12 0
176 38 8
Coach lace
31
47 0
16
16.7
Fringe, gimp, and tassels...
681
76.9
Hemp hose
1
14.3
Nets and seines «
47
73 4
39 48 8
114
54 3
514
83 2
646
86 4
Hunting and fishing tackle.
63 13.0
Fly nets
74
84 1
Oakum/.
4
2 8
26
15 2
Oilcloth, enameled 0
2
1"
( 23
f 1
2
1
f 4
1"
r
Oilcloth, silk h
,
Clothing, oil
.|
I 62
1
,
(>. 0
;;; "f1-2
,
f '4
•4
Oilcloth, floor »'.
I in]
5
J
4
49
1 8
Regalia and society ban-
ners and emblems /
70
84 3
„
56 5
237 57 8
376
63 8
1 391
66 9
1 128
71 i
Shoddy
149
51 4
171 27 1
496
38 7
865
40 1
480
24 9
Silk and silk goods *
5
62 5
1 841
66 2
2 203 52 8
16 396
52 3
28 914
58 6
34 797
53 2
Silk, sewing, and twist i
554
65.3
1.996
77 4
1,368 54 2
Upholstering materials ™ ...
Haircloth »
100
40.5
( 551
< 341
48 5
•I 1541 >23 7
f 306
20.7
892
27.6
1,919
37.6
Prepared mossw
{
Woolen goods o
14 976
33.4
16 126
39 7
27 53i 35 4
29,372
34.0
30, 159
39.2
24,535
35.6
Wool carding and cloth
dressing P
22
2.0
130
10.2
173 7 5
Woolen yarn
393
51.5
Cloth dressers 3 .
Cottons and woolens
mixed r
1 901
41.6
20 520
47 3
Wearing, not specified •
155
29.1
2 7.4
Worsted goods
1 277
53 7
7,152 55 4
9,473
50 4
20 082
46 7
25 829
45.3
Cotton ginning t
6
2 2
93
1 3
11
1
Wool pulling u
12
3 4
Wool scouring »
10.3
|
« " Hosiery" hi 1870, 1860, and 1850.
b " Flax and linen goods " in 1870. Not given in 1850.
c " Linen thread" was in 1890 included in " All other industries " and in 1900 included in " Linen goods."
d"Mats and rugs" hi 1870 and 1860 and " Mats" in 1850. In 1850, 9 "Male hands" but no " Female
hands" were reported.
e "Nets, fish and seine" in 1870; "Fishing lines, nets? and tackle" and "Nets" hi 1860; not given in 1850.
/ Included in other classifications in 1880. Not given in 1870. No female, but 196 " Male hands ' ' returned
hi 1860. No female but 36 " Male hands" returned hi 1850.
g In 1900 there were 512 men wageearners, butno women or children reported. Not given in 1870. " Oil
and enameled cloth" hi 1860. " Oilcloths" hi 1850.
h In 1870 no women or children, but 2 " Male hands" reported. In 1860 no female, but 4 " Male hands"
reported. Probably included in "Oilcloths" in 1850.
* In 1860, 310 " Male hands" but no " Female hands" were reported.
j " Regalias, banners, and flags" in 1860. " Regalia" in 1850.
* "Silk goods, not specified" in 1870; "Silk and fancy goods, fringes, and trimmings" in 1860;
Silk
hi 1850, " Curled hair."
In 1860 no females, but 5
Male hands '
cloth "in 1850.
i Sewing silk in 1850.
win 1870, 1880, and 1890 reported as " Upholstery materials;
n After 1870 this was included in "Upholstering materials.'
were reported under " Prepared moss." Not given in 1850.
o " Woolens, carding and pulling" in 1850.
P " Wool carders" in 1850.
q In 1850, 36 " Male hands" but no " Female hands" were returned under this designation.
r " Mixed textiles" in 1880. Not given in any year except 1850 and 1880.
* " Weavers" in 1850. Not given in 1860 or after 1870.
t No reports received for this industry in 1880, 1870, and 1850. In 1890 there were 88 " Men, 16 years and
over," 100 "Women, 16 years and over," and 8 " Children, under 16 years," engaged in " Cotton, cleaning
and rehandling," for which no returns were received in 1880, and which was included in "All other indus-
tries" in 1900. In 1900 there were 5 "Women, 16 years and over" hi "Cotton compressing," as well as
2,725 " Men, 16 years and over" and 12 "Children, under 16 years." No women were returned from this
industry in any other year, though there were reported in 1890, 2,785 wage earners; in 1880, 1,008 wage-
earners, and in 1860, 64 " Hands employed."
« Included in other classifications hi 1880 and 1890. "Wool, cleaning and pulling" hi 1860 and 1850.
Not given in 1870. In 1900 there were reported 475 " Men, 16 years and over " but no women or children.
In 1850 there were reported 11 " Male hands" but no " Female hands."
f Included in other classifications in 1880 and 1890. Not given in 1870. Probably included in " Wool
cleaning and pulling " in 1860 and 1850.
APPENDIX.
253
TABLE XI. — CLOTHING INDUSTRIES: AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS
AND PER CENT WHICH WOMEN FORMED OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF WAGE-EARN-
ERS AT EACH CENSUS, 1850 TO 1900.
[This table includes nine of the industries given in the Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, in the
group " Textiles," four ot those given in the group r' Leather and its finished products," eight of those
given in the group "Miscellaneous industries," and five of those given in the group "Hand trades "
The figures from 1880 to 1900 are for " Women, 16 years of age and over," those for 1870 for •' Females
centages, too, are derived from figures there given. The form of inquiry differed somewhat for each
census (see Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, page Ixi), but it is not believed that
differences have affected materially the general results as here given.]
Industries.
1850.
1860.
1870.
1880.
1890.
1900.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
46.7
50.4
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Total
115,459
49.5
121,164
45.0
115,440
58,466
37.9
54.8
203,698
80,994
326,912
51.4
401,437
89,874
40,835
56,866
55.9
Clothing, men's °
61,500
63.7
72,963
4,614
4,850
63.6
97.2
84.5
96,077
47, 164
25,913
44.2
97.0
66.2
47.0
89.6
67.9
Clothing, women's, dress-
making b
Clothing, women's, factory
product c
10,247
553
87.6
38.2
22,253
88.3
Clothing, children's
Furnishing goods, men's d,.
Hats and caps, not includ-
ing wool hats <
327
8,226
90.3
54.1
339
4,243
15
70.3
36.1
16.3
9,565
5,337
355
1,459
5,248
85.6
31.0
29.2
26.7
80.1
16, 415
9,205
476
1,121
8,552
16,457
5,319
25,563
9,093
79.0
35.5
30.0
32.0
76.9
96.4
83.7
81.9
83.2
25,283
11,642
549
651
14,035
32,487
4,192
31,074
11,096
83.7
37.0
40.0
30.9
83.2
97.6
78.6
80.7
87.2
6,301
146
39.0
14.4
Hat and cap materials /. . .
Wool hats g
Millinery and lace goods ft. .
Millinery, custom work i.. .
Artificial feathers and flow-
ers /
3,468
3,688
372
92.0
95.3
85.7
987
87.8
6,106
84.7
1,114
54.8
3,577
22,186
7,487
82.4
86.4
85.1
Shirts
Corsets *
56
65.1
2,921
19
67.2
67.9
Costumes
Dyeing and cleaning
499
3,052
1,859
34.0
52.4
51.5
1,618
2,176
2,924
40.5
56.8
48.6
2,128
4,131
3,171
39.2
47.6
55.7
Buttons
621
1,762
57.1
68.4
674
1,410
46
58.1
71.9
22.0
949
1,784
236
49.6
68.1
40.8
Umbrellas and canes I
Umbrella furniture
Fur goods m
3,920
4
5,091
1,738
1,022
604
39,849
405
3,924
406
56.4
1.0
62.2
34.8
49.1
44.6
29.8
2.4
43.0
33. 6
4,280
82
9,703
2,212
1,176
34
47,186
126
5,942
596
49.8
9.8
67.6
35.9
39.3
13.3
33.0
1.3
41.3
36.1
Furs, dressed n
430
1,609
39.9
83.0
797
976
61.6
68.3
1,525
2,894
52.5
71.3
2,604
5,249
1,422
652
174
25,122
824
1,984
416
63.0
68.2
49.3
43.5
39.8
22.6
3.6
42.6
29.4
Gloves and mittens o
Boot and shoe, cut stock
Boot and shoe findings P. ..
Boot and shoe uppers .
15
11.9
43
13.0
1,540
50.5
Boots and shoes, factory
product ?
32,949
31.3
28,514
23.2
19, 113
14.1
Boots and shoes, custom
work and repairing
Boots and shoes, rubber
Pocketbooksr...
161
20.9
397
48.4
293
40.0
a Includes 22,134 establishments in 1900 and 13,591 in 1890, reported as "Clothing, men's, custom work,
and repairing," 5,731 in 1900 and 4,867 in 1890 reported as "Clothing, men's, factory product," and 149 in
1900, and 200 in 1890 reported as "Clothing, men's, factory product, buttonholes.'" Given as "Clothiers
and tailors "in 1850.
b No reports received for this industry in 1880. Not given in 1870 or 1850. "Millinery and dressmaking"
c "Clothing, women's," in 1870: "Clothing, ladies," in 1860; not given in 1850.
d " Suspenders " only in 1860 and 1850. Not given in 1870.
t In 1900 includes 171 establishments reported as "Fur hats," and 645 as "Hats and caps, not including
fur hats and wool hate." " Hats and caps" in 1870, 1860, and 1850.
/"Hat materials" in 1870; "Hatters' trimmings," "Hat bodies," and "Hat tips" in 1860; not given in
1850.
g Not separately given in 1870, 1860, or 1850. Probably included under the general title " Hats and caps."
h Includes in 1870 " Millinery; " in 1860 " Millinery goods," " Bead work," and " Straw-bonnet bleaching,"
and in 1850 "Bonnets, straw braid, etc."
i No reports received for this industry in 1880. Probably included in "Millinery," "Millinery goods,"
etc., in 1870, 1860, and 1850.
i Includes in 1870 "Artificial feathers, flowers, and fruits," and "Feathers, cleaned, dressed and dyed."
Not given in 1860. "Artificial flowers" in 1850.
* ''Hoop skirts and corsets" in 1870; not given in 1860.
i "Umbrellas and parasols" in 1860; "Umbrellas" in 1850.
m Included in other classifications in 1880. Not given in 1870, 1860, or 1850.
« "Furs" in 1860; "Furriers" in 1850. The census gives no explanation of the 1880 figures.
o" Gloves "in 1850.
p"Boot and shoe findings" and "Shoe pegs" in 1870; "Shoe findings," "Shoe and boot tips," and
"Shoe strings" in 1860; "Shoe pegs" in 1850.
q " Boots and shoes" in 1870, 1860, and 1850.
r " Pocketbooks, porternonnaies, and wallets" in 1860.
254 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
TABLE XI.— CLOTHING INDUSTRIES: AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS
AND PER CENT WHICH WOMEN FORMED OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF WAGE-EARN-
ERS AT EACH CENSUS, 1850 TO 1900— Concluded.
1851
3.
1861
3.
187
D.
1881
3.
189
0.
1901
).
Industries.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Belt clasps and slides
7
50.0
Skirt supporters
10
47 6
Needles and pins a
207
78.1
165
64.5
226
34.5
380
35 3
691
42 9
1 019
43 3
Hooks and eyes
57
48 7
67
36 2
63
27 6
96
44 0
129
43 0
Hairwork b
68
63.0
57
36.8
940
56.9
937
79 9
1 089
78 0
Q38
85 2
a Includes "Needles" and "Pins," separately given in 1860, and only "Pins" in 1850.
b "Wigs and hair work" in 1860; "Wigs and curls" in 1850.
TABLE XII— DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE: NUMBER OF WOMEN 16 YEARS OF
AGE AND OVER AND PER CENT WHICH WOMEN FORMED OF TOTAL NUMBER OF
PERSONS GAINFULLY EMPLOYED, IN SPECIFIED OCCUPATIONS AT EACH CENSUS,
1870 TO 1900.
[The figures and percentages for 1900 and 1880 are taken, except where otherwise mentioned, from the
Twelfth Census, 1900: Special Report on Occupations, pages cxxxii-cxxxvi; the figures for 1890 and
1870, and the statistics from which the percentages for those years are derived, from the Eleventh Cen-
sus, 1890: Population, Part II, pages civ-cvi.]
1870
1880.
1890.
9
1900
Occupations.
Number.
Per
cent.
Number.
Per
cent.
Number.
Per
cent.
Number.
Per
cent.
Total
882,406
41.8
1, 074, 523
31.5
1,590,124
39.1
1,953,467
35.0
Servants and waitresses &
786, 635
88.4
876, 377
75.9
1,231,344
84.5
1, 165, 561
74.7
Housekeepers and stewardesses
146,929
94.7
Nurses and mid wives
11,356
93.4
14, 097
90.4
41, 396
87.0
108, 691
89.9
Laborers (not specified)
18, 677
1 8
f 51, 272
2.8
50,321
2.6
106,916
4.1
Janitresses and sextons . ....
152
5.2
711
7.7
2,803
10.6
8,010
14.1
Watchmen policemen firemen etc
279
.4
879
.7
Bartenders
440
.5
Laundresses
55,218
91 5
107, 136
87.8
215,121
87.2
328, 935
85.3
Barbers and hairdressers
1,123
4.8
2,800
6.3
2,779
3.3
5,440
4.2
Boarding and lodging house keepers..
Hotel keepers
7,060
865
55.2
3.3
12,313
2,136
64.6
6.6
32,593
5,276
73.5
12.0
59, 455
8,533
83.4
15.6
Restaurant keepers d
714
1.4
2,196
2.6
4,837
0 O
4,845
14.3
Saloon keepers .
2,086
2.5
Other domestic and personal service « .
606
3.9
5,485
10.2
3,375
27.9
6,747
19.5
a The figures for 1890 relate to "Females 15 years of age and over."
b In 1890. 1880, and 1870 includes "Housekeepers and stewardesses."
c The Eleventh Census, 1890: Population, Part II, page civ, gives the number of women in this occu-
pation group in 1880 as 51,443.
din 1890, 1880, and 1870 includes "Bartenders" and "Saloon keepers."
< In 1880 and 1870 includes "Watchmen, policemen, firemen, etc."
APPENDIX.
255
TABLE Xin.— FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS: AYKKAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-
EARNERS AND PER CENT WHICH WOMKN FORMED OF THE TOT\L NUMBER OF
WAGE-EARNERS AT EACH CENSUS, 1850 TO 1900.
[This table include? all the industries in the group " Food and kindred products" and in the group " Liquors
and beverages," as given in the Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures. The figures for 1880 to 1900 are
for "Women, 10 years of age and over," those for 1870 are for " Females above 15," while those for 1850
and 1800 are for all " Female hands," regardless of age. The numbers employed from 1850 to 1870 are
as given in the Ninth Census, 1870: Industry and Wealth, pp. 394-408, and from 1880 to 1900 as given in
the Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, pages 3-17. The percentages, too, are derived from
figures there given. The form of inquiry differed somewhat for each census (see Twelfth Census, 1900:
Manufactures, Part I, page Ixi), but it is not believed that these differences have affected materially
the general results as here given.)
185(
).
186
).
187(
).
188
).
189
3.
1901
3.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
™ {Ivors'.:
919
53
2.4
.8
2,019
46
4.0
.3
8,617
89
7.8
.4
23,276
131
16.5
.3
49,021
437
19.7
1.0
64,639
1,095
20.8
1.7
FOOD AND KINDKED PROD-
UCTS.
Bread and other bakery
products o
376
5.6
338
5.2
842
6.0
2,210
9.8
4,672
12.0
10 452
17 3
Cheese, butter, and con-
densed milk b
12
21.8
4
?3 5
1,279
71 S
1,330
16.8
725
5.8
1,053
8.1
Chocolate and cocoa prod-
ucts c
17
50 0
5
25 0
87
43 7
113
50 7
343
38 4
592
45 i
Coffee and spice, roasting
and grinding d
12
3.1
58
9 2
100
8.2
438
16 1
941
25 0
2 809
44 0
Confectionery
345
19.9
465
19.9
1,225
21.0
2,827
28.8
9,254
43.0
15,849
47.2
Cordials and sirups <
51
19.8
58
20.6
130
35 9
Fish, canning and preserv-
ing /
696
28.5
841
16.8
2,533
18.9
104
27 8
150
29 6
573
45 7
Flouring and grist mill
products
50
?,
56
?,
91
.?.
42
1
308
6
497
1.3
Food preparations A
Fruits and vegetables, can-
51
30.7
386
3 434
32.8
58.5
312
15 463
23.4
48 5
1,150
25 714
33.1
51.7
2,619
19 699
32.1
54.1
Glucose
.4
5
.3
22
.7
46
3.9
141
15.9
20
4.0
Oleomargarine
18
3.0
11
4 7,
65
6.0
Oysters, canning and pre-
serving »'..
1,702
49 3
1,123
40.4
Pickles, preserves, and
sauces i.
86
40 8
121
36.1
230
24,7
1,585
44.3
3,081
45.2
Rice, cleaning and polish-
ing *
213
48.2
94
18.2
9
1.4
Slaughtering and meat
packing, not including
retail butchering I
9
.3
19
.4
202
2.4
1.011
2.3
2,960
4.3
a "Bread, crackers, and other bakery products" in 1870; "Bread and crackers" hi 1860; and "Bakers"
in 1850.
& Includes 113 establishments in 1900 and 160 in 1890 reported as "Cheese and butter, urban dairy prod-
ucts; " 9,242 in 1900 and 4,552 in 1890 reported as "Cheese, butter, and condensed milk, factory product; "
and 10 establishments in 1900 reported as " Butter, reworking." In 1870 and 1850 includes also " Cheese,"
1,313 establishments in 1870 and 8 hi 1850. In 1860 includes 2 "Cheese" and 1 "Milk, condensed '' estab-
lishments.
c "Chocolate" in 1870 and 1850; "Chocolate" and "Cocoa" in 1860.
d Includes in 1860 "Coffee and spices, ground," "Coffee and spices, essence of," and "Coffee and spices,
roasting," and in 1850 "Coffee and spice," "Spice" and "Spice mills."
e Includes in 1860 "Liquors, cordials," "Sirups, other than sorghum," and "Sorghum sirup." No
returns hi 1850. In 1880 there were 81 "Men, 16 years and over" in 16 establishments, but no women or
children returned. In 1860 there were reported 59 "Male hands" but no "Female hands."
/ " Fish, cured and packed " and "Fish and oysters, canned " hi 1870. Included hi other classifications
in 1880. No returns in 1850 and 1860.
g Includes hi 1870 only "Mustard, ground;" hi 1860 only "Mustard;" and hi 1850 only "Vegetable ex-
tracts." No females were reported hi these years; hi 1870 there were 92 "Males above 16" and 2 " Youths"
hi 15 establishments; hi 1860, 17 "Males" in 4 establishments, and in 1850, 71 "Males" hi 24 establishments.
A Includes in 1870 "Food preparations, animal," "Food preparations, vegetable," and "Food prepara-
tions, vermicelli and macaroni;" in 1860 "Rice flour," "Hominy," "Pearl barley, " and " Macaroni and
vermicelli; " and in 1850 there were no returns.
i Included in other classifications hi 1880.
i " Preserves and sauces " hi 1870; " Pickles and preserves " in 1850; no returns in 1860.
*"Rice cleaning" to 1860; "Rice mills" hi 1850; in 1850 there were 200 "Male hands" reported in 4
establishments but no " Female hands"; no returns in 18.70.
i Includes 213 establishments in 1900 and 249 in 1890 reported as "Sausage," 573 hi 1900 and 611 in 1890
as "Slaughtering and meat packing, wholesale, " and 348 in 1900 and 507 in 1890 as " Slaughtering, whole-
sale, not including meat packing." In 1870 " Butchering," "Meat, cured and packed (not specified),
"Meat, packed, beef," and "Meat, packed, pork," and in 1850 " Pork and beef packing." The figures for
1860 are from the Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part III, Special Reports of Selected Industries,
p. 387. In 1880 there were 26,113 "Men, 16 years and over," and 1,184 "Children under 16," but no women
reported.
256 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
TABLE XIII.— FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS: AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-
EARNERS AND PER CENT WHICH WOMEN FORMED OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF
WAGE-EARNERS AT EACH CENSUS, 1850 to 1900— Concluded.
185
0.
186
0.
187
0.
188
3.
1891
).
190
).
Industries.
Num-
Per
Num-
Per
Num.
Per
Num-
Per
Num-
Per
Num-
Per
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
Sugar and molasses refin-
ing o
12
.7
96
1.6
246
3 5
426
2 6
Vinegar and cider 6
11
2 2
7
3
44
3 5
155
5 9
136
7 g
799
10.7
LIQUORS AND BEVERAGES.
Bottlingc
1
1.1
58
1.9
136
1.8
Liquors, distilled d
23
.6
14
.2
6
.1
10
.2
3
.1
81
2 2
Liquors, malt * .
11
.5
21
3
34
3
29
1
250
g
504
1 3
Liquors, vinous...
4
3.8
32
2.2
57
5.9
26
2.5
61
5 2
Malt/
g
3
4
2
Mineral and soda waters g.
19
3.2
7
1.0
16
.7
27
1.0
100
1.7
309
3.4
a Includes in 1900 and 1880 "Sugar and molasses, beet," which in 1890 was included in "All other indus-
tries." In 1870 includes "Sugar and molasses, refined cane," "Sugar and molasses, beet and grape," and
" Sugar and molasses, sorghum." In 1860 includes " Sugar and molasses," "Sugar and molasses, refining,"
and "Molasses, refined." In 1880 there were 6,182 men 16 years and over and 25 children under 16, but
no women reported. In 1870 there were also 3,797 women, 15,723 men, and 1,779 children reported under
"Sugar and molasses, raw cane." In 1860 there were reported as employed in the three classes given 3,510
"Male hands" but no " Female hands." The figures for 1850 were given under "Sugar refiners."
b In 1870 includes "Vinegar" and "Cider," separately given. In 1860 includes "Vinegar," "Cider,"
and "Cider, refined." No returns for 1850.
c In 1870 "Bottling, malt liquors and mineral waters; " in 1860 " Liquors, bottled; " and hi 1850 " Cider bot-
tling." No reports received for this industry in 1880. In 1860 there were 50 and in 1850 there were 32
"Male hands" but no "Female hands" returned.
d Includes in 1860 "Liquors, distilled" and "Liquors, rectified;" in 1850 "Distilleries" and "Distil-
leries, rectifying."
« In 1870 includes also "Small beer." "Breweries" in 1850.
/ In 1890 there were 3,328 "Men, 16 years of age and over," but no women or children returned from 202
establishments; hi 1870, 1,634 "Male hands above 16" and 6 "Youths" but no women returned from 208
establishments; in 1860, 589 "Male hands" from 85 establishments; and in 1850, 73 male "Maltsters" from
11 establishments.
g "Mineral water" hi 1860 and "Mineral water and pop" in 1850.
TABLE XIV.— TOBACCO : AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS AND PER
CENT WHICH WOMEN FORMED OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF WAGE-EARNERS AT
EACH CENSUS, 1850 to 1900.
{This table includes simply the industries given in the group "Tobacco" in the Twelfth Census, 1900:
Manufactures. The figures from 1880 to 1900 are for "Women 16 years of age and over," those for 1870
are for " Females above 15," while those for 1850 and 1860 are for all " Female hands," regardless of age.
The numbers employed from 1850 to 1870 are asgiven in the Ninth Census, 1870: Industry and Wealth,
pp. 394-408, and from 1880 to 1900 as given in the Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, pages 3-17.
The percentages, too, are derived from figures there given. The form of inquiry differed somewhat for
each census (see Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, page Ixi), but it is not believed that these
differences have affected materially the general results as here given.]
185(
I
1861
).
187(
).
188
).
1891
).
190
0.
Industries.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Total
1,975
13.9
3,721
13.9
7,794
16.3
20,480
23.4
36,419
29.7
53.374
37.5
Tobacco: Chewing, smok-
ing and snuff «
1,975
13.9
2,990
15.9
64,860
23.9
10, 776
i3? P
10,564
35 5
11,590
39.7
Tobacco: Cigars and cigar-
ettes <•
731
9.1
d2,934
10 7
9,108
17 1
24,214
n s
37, 762
36 *
Tobacco: Stemming and re-
handling f
596
38 Q
1,641
77 4
4,022
41.7
a "Tobacco and snuff" in 1860; "Tobacconists" in 1850.
& The Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, page 660, gives 5,179.
c "Tobacco and cigars" and "Cigars" in 1870; "Cigars" in 1860: not given in 1850.
d The Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part III, Selected Industries, page 645, gives 2,615.
e Not given in 1850, 1860, or 1870.
APPENDIX.
257
TABLE XV— PAPER AND PRINTING: AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS
AND PER CENT WHICH WOMEN FORMED OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF WAGE-EARN-
ERS AT EACH CENSUS, 1850 to 1900.
[This table includes all the industries given in the group "Paper and printing" in the census of manu-
facturing industries of 1900. The figures for 1880 to 1900 are for "Women, 16 years of age and over,"
those for 1870 are for " Females above 15," while those for 1850 and I860 are for all "Female hands,"
regardless of age. The numbers employed from 1850 to 1870 are as given in the Ninth Census, 1870:
Industry and Wealth, pages 394-408, and from 1880 to 1900 as given in the Twelfth Census, 1900: Manu-
factures, Part I, pages 3-17. The percentages, too, are derived from figures there given. The form of
inquiry differed somewhat for each census (see Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, page Ixi),
but it is not believed that these differences have affected materially the general results as here given.]
Industries.
1850.
I860.
1870.
1880.
1890.
1900.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
&
Per
«*.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
24.8
46.1
49.3
Total
7,027
32.3
11,343
9
2,732
26.8
64.3
57.2
18,425
206
3,175
26.2
29,762 24.9
50,831
22.5
73,922
Bags, paper a
46.4
41.2
883
4,831
56.3
45.5
653
5,752
544
46.1
935
7,872
Bookbinding and blank book-
making b
1,690
48.7
Paper ruling c
Boxes, fancy and paper d
415
57.8
1,090
68.1
3,088
66.7
6,836
126
12
70.6
36.5
18.8
12,866
64
29
67.9
31.1
16.1
18,192
218
54
65.8
34.8
16.6
Cardboard «
Card cutting and designing /
Cards, playing
22
155
62.9
70.1
79
82
27
18
42.9
53.6
17.5
195
178
51.7
64.5
Signs and show cards
Engraving and diesinking s
269
11.6
68.9
62
661
20
'"308
13.8
39
883
i,"496
lie. 5
59
1,085
6
2;i46
16.8
68.4
Engraving, steel, including plate
printing^
47
Engraving, wood
Engraving and stencil cutting
Lithographing and engraving i . . . j 58
Chromos and lithographs
23.0
85.7
""26
"iio
282
2
27
15
4,392
9.0
65.3
33.3
6.9
88.2
40.3
5
""56
""65
627
Photolithographing and photo-
engraving i
73
117
Maps and atlases *
63
36
Envelopes
948 78.7
1,707
^73.4
2,040
Envelopes and cards, embossed
Stationery l
126
56.0
Labels and tags m
81
7,648
24.7
29.8
149
6,767
24.1
21.8
261
7,930
34.6
16.0
Paper and wood pulp »
2,950
43.5
741
2,553
475
2,384
25.7
35.7
Paper, printing
Paper, wrapping
Paper, writing
.
243
28.9
9.4
P2,878
492
46.3
11.8
Paper goods not elsewhere speci-
fied o
Paper hangings ?
2
50
2.2
6.2
91
14
6
7.0
26.9
100.0
145
16.7
150
6.0
Paper shades and paper staining r.
Paper patterns *
84
284
86.6
65.3
361
29
88.3
35.4
719
86.0
Collars and cuffs, paper . . .
1,448
70.8
a Not given in 1850.
b " Bookbinding" in 1870; "Bookbinding and blank books" in 1860; " Bookbinders and blank books"
in 1850.
cFour" Male-hands" but no "Female hands" reported in I860.
d"Boxes, fancy" and "Boxes, paper" in 1870; "Boxes, paper" in 1860; "Boxes, band and fancy"
in 1850.
<Not given in 1870 or 1850; 24 "Male hands" but no "Female hands" employed in 1860.
/"Cards, other than playing" in 1870; "Card cutting," "Cards, enameled," and "Cards, hand" in 1860,
"Paper cards" in 1850.
g In 1850, 3 "Male hands" but no "Female hands" were reported under "Diesinkers."
A "Engraving" in 1870; "Engravers" in 1850.
» " Lithography" in 1860 and " Lithographers" in 1850.
i Included in other classifications in 1880; in 1890 reported as "Photolithographing and engraving."
tin 1860 includes "Maps," "Map mounting and coloring," and "Charts, hydrograpnic." in 1850
includes only "Maps."
l" Stationers "in 1850.
»» " Tags" in 1860; not given in 1870 or 1850.
n In 1890 Includes 567 establishments reported as "Paper" and 82 as "Pulp, wood;" in 1880 includes 692
reported as " Paper" and 50 as " Wood pulp; " " Paper" (not specified) and " Wood pulp "in 1870; " Paper"
in l.Mii); "Paper" in 1850.
o Included in other classifications in 1880; not given in 1870. Under "Ornaments, paper" in 1860, 1
"Male hand" but no " Female hands" were reported, and in the same year under "Valentines" 9 "Male
hands" but no " Female hands" were reported.
P From Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, Table 2, page 34. In Table 1 of the same report,
page 12, the number is given as 2,385, but this does not include ?< Collars and cuffs, paper," which in 1900
are included under "All other industries" hi Table 1.
v " Wall paper " in 1850.
r " Paper stamers" in 1850.
'"Dress patterns" in 1860; not given in 1870 or 1850.
49450°_S. Doc. 645, 62-1— vol 9 17
258 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
TABLE XV.— PAPER AND PRINTING: AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-EARN-
ERS, ETC.— Concluded.
1850. 1860.
1870.
1880.
1890.
1900.
Industries.
Num-
Per
Num-
Per
Num-
Per
Num-
Per
Num-
Per
Num-
Per
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
Printing and publishing a
1,413
16.3
2,333
8
11.6
8.0
2,800
9.1
6,777
7
11.6
3 7
19,026
180
13.9
25 2
28,765
32
17.6
5 7
Printing materials &
Stereotyping and electrotypingc
15
2.0
44
6.9
67
5.2
121
5.0
a In 1900 includes 6,920 establishments reported as "Printing and publishing, book and job," ,87 as
" Printing and publishing, music," 15,305 as "Printing and publishing, newspapers and periodicals;"
in 1890 includes 4,098 reported as "Printing and publishing, book and job," 79 as ''Printing and publishing,
music," 12,362 as "Printing and publishing, newspapers and periodicals," and 27 as "Printing tip;"
in 1880 includes 1 reported as "Postal cards" and 3,467 as "Printing and publishing;" in 1870 includes
i " Printing and publishing (not specified)," 40 as " Printing and publishing,
d publishing, newspaper," and 609 as "Printing and publishing, job;" in
ents reported as "Printing and publishing" and 2 as "Music printing;" in
311 establishments reported as " Printing
book," 1,199 as "Printing and j "
1860 includes 1,666 establishments reported as " Printing and publishing" and 2 as "Music printing;
1850 includes 26 establishments reported as " Printers, lithographic and copperplate," and 673 as " Printers
and publishers." The Special Report of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part I, p. Ixxxi, omits " Print-
ing and publishing, not speckled, in 1870 and gives the number employed in that year as 1,569 and the pro-
portion as 7.8 per cent.
ft" Printers' fixtures" in 1870; in 1860 includes "Printers' chases, furniture, and rollers," "Block let-
ters," and "Type, wooden." In 1870 there were reported from 21 establishments 80 "Males above 16"
and 6 "Youths," but no women, and in 1850 there were reported from 3 establishments under "Block
letters" 14 "Male hands," but no "Female hands."
c Not given in 1850. In 1860 there were reported 305 " Male hands," but no " Female hands."
TABLE XVI.— SELECTED INDUSTRIES INCLUDED IN OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUS-
TRIES, BY GROUPS: AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS AND PER
CENT WHICH WOMEN FORMED OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF WAGE-EARNERS AT
EACH CENSUS, 1850 TO 1900.
[This table includes special industries, other than those shown in the preceding tables, in which over
3,000 women were employed, in 1900, and also "House-furnishing goods not elsewhere specified," "Soap
and candles," and "Straw goods not elsewhere specified," all given under "Miscellaneous industries"
in the Twelfth Census, 1900; "Matches," given under " Lumber and its remanufactures," in the Twelfth
Census, 1900; and "Clocks, "given under "Metals and metal products other than iron and steel," in the
Twelfth Census, 1900. The figures for this table, from 1880 to 1900, are for "Women 16 years of age and
over," those for 1870 are for " Females above 15," while those for 1850 and 1860 are for all " Female hands,"
regardless of age. The numbers employed from 1850 to 1870 are as given in the Ninth Census, 1870: Indus-
try and Wealth, pages 394-408, and from 1880 to 1900 as given in the Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures,
Part I, pages 3-17. The percentages, too, are derived from figures there given. The form of inquiry dif-
fered somewhat for each census (see Twelfth Census, 1900: Manufactures, Part I, page Ixi), but it is not
believed that these differences have affected materially the general results as here given.]
Industries.
1850.
1860.
1870.
1880.
1890.
1900.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent
Total
4,678
- ' - ~
10.3
— - -
12,611
19.3
26,655
20.3
22,769
14.7
29,681
13.4
56,629
3,110
6,001
4,481
3,529
6,319
3,473
1,371
6,158
3,056
2,066
16.6
53.9
50.8
10.3
6.7
30.6
50.5
22.7
15.1
53.4
39.6
Druggists' preparations^ not in-
cluding prescriptions
452
631
316
715
1,545
592
66
9.6
25.9
5.2
4.5
15.3
32.6
5.0
209
2,670
2,023
1,885
2,968
2,640
510
1,469
1,995
818
10.3
37.8
10.7
4.2
21.4
40.0
14.6
16.7
58.7
23.9
Patent medicines and com-
pounds ft
134
43
97
389
16.2
1.8
1.7
7.4
226
84
251
584
123
40
21.3
2.7
2.8
9.8
14.8
4.1
1,186
948
741
1,998
1,219
630
72
654
137
29.5
9.3
3.1
15.7
36.4
16.0
5.7
23.4
23.1
Pottery, terra cotta, and fire-clay
products c
Glass d
Jewelry *
Watches /
Clocks
23
2.9
Electric apparatus and supplies 0
Fancy articles, not elsewhere
27
19
69.2
95.0
137
23
44.5
57.5
House-furnishing goods, not else-
where specified »...
a No reports received for this industry in 1880; " Drugs and chemicals" in 1870; not given in 1860 and 1850.
ft "Medicines, extracts, and drugs" in 1860; "Medicines, drugs and dyestuffs" in 1850.
c "Stone and earthen ware" in 1870; "Pottery and stone ware," "Terra-cotta ware," and" Porcelain
ware" in 1860; " Potteries" and " Earthenware " in 1850.
d Includes in 1870 "Glass, cut," "Glass, plate," "Glass, stained," "Glassware (not specified)," and
" Glass window; " in 1860, " Glass," and " Glass, sand," for the latter 3 " Male hands" and no women being
reported from one establishment; in 1850, "Glass" and "Glass cutters," for the latter 174 "Male hands"
1 CpVJl LCLI 1J.LF1JU. VJ11U COUCHLHIO.LI.111C.11L, 11J. J-OWy V« 1CK7O C*
and no women being reported from 8 establishments.
« "Silversmiths, jewelers, etc.," in I860.
/ "Watches, watch repairing and materials" in 1860; not given in 1850,
g Not given in 1870; in 1860 there were reported under "Electromagnetic rn
but no "Female hands," and in 1850 under "Electromagnetic instruments
Electromagnetic machines" 13 "Male hands"
0_. ' 4 "Male hands" but no
Female hands."
h Includes in 1870 "Fancy articles" and "Fans" and in 1860 only "Fans." Not given in 1850.
* Includes only "Mops and dusters" in 1870 and "Quilts" in 1860. Not given in 1850.
APPENDIX.
259
TABLE XVI.— SELECTED INDUSTRIES: AVERAGE NUMBER OF WOMEN WAGE-
EARNERS, ETC.— Concluded.
Industries.
1850.
1860.
1870.
1880.
1890.
1900.
Num-
ber.
Per-
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Photography a
K libber and elastic goods b
17
1,558
156
540
1,721
10.8
60.7
5.5
52.9
7.3
73
973
219
648
2,541
6,803
11.2
35.2
6.3
51.8
8.9
89.5
452
2,649
310
1,089
5,084
12,594
16.1
44.0
6.9
42.6
8.8
84.4
086
2,281
388
1,120
2,908
7,501
24.8
36.4
7.3
50.5
4.6
68.5
2,063
4,296
1,182
847
3,800
306
29. (i
46.8
15.1
49.9
4.5
72.2
3,118
7,317
2,OW>
793
3,742
29
35.0
35.9
21.8
38.7
3.7
53.7
Soap and candles c . . . .
Matches
Furniture, including cabinetmak-
ing, repairing, and upholster-
ing d
Straw goods, not elsewhere speci-
fied «
a "Photographs" in 1870 and 1860 and "Daguerreotypes" in 1850.
b * India rubber and elastic goods" in 1870; "India rubber goods" in 1860 and 1850.
c Includes in 1S70 " Soap and candles" and "Candles, adamantine and wax; " in 1860 "Soap and candles,"
"Candles, adamantine" and "Candles, wax," and in 1850 "Chandlers."
d Includes in 1S70 "Furniture, not specified," "Furniture, chairs," and "Upholstery;" in 1860 "Fur-
niture, cabinet, school, and other," "Upholstery" and "Willow furniture and willow ware," and in 1850
"Cabinet ware" and "Upholsterers."
e "Straw goods" in 1870 and 1860; not given in 1850.
TABLE XVII.— TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION: NUMBER OF WOMEN 16 YEARS OF AGE
AND OVER AND PER CENT WHICH WOMEN FORMED OF TOTAL NUMBER OF PER-
SONS GAINFULLY EMPLOYED IN SPECIFIED OCCUPATIONS AT EACH CENSUS, 1870
TO 1900.
[The figures and percentages for 1900 and 1880 are taken, except when otherwise mentioned, from the
Twelfth Census, 1900: Special Report on Occupations, pages cxxxii-ncxxxvi; the figures for 1890 and 1870,
and the statistics from which the percentages for these years are derived, from the Eleventh Census, 1890:
Population, Part II, pages civ-cvi.]
1S
70.
18
SO.
188
O.a
19
00.
Occupations.
Num-
ber.
.Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Num-
ber.
Per
cent.
Total
18,656
1.5
660,010
3.2
223,203
6.8
481,159
10 1
A — Saleswomen
7,462
23.1
142,265
23 3
Stenographers and typewriters c..
Clerks and copyists c
9,982
3.3
28,698
5.7
168,808
16.9
(85,086
-{81,000
75.7
12.9
Bookkeepers and accountants c...
Telegraph and telephone opera-
rators
350
4.3
1,224
5.3
8,403
16.2
172,896
21,980
28.6
29.3
Packers and shippers
179
3.3
477
5.1
6 147
25.4
17 052
28 6
Agents
96
.5
415
1.2
4,853
2.8
10,468
4.3
Messengers and errand and office
boys
21
.5
49
.4
1,383
4.4
2,453
3.4
Steam railroad emplovees . .
62
(d)
420
.2
1,412
.3
1,662
.3
Foremen and overseers
975
2 7
1 418
2 6
Commercial travelers
32
.4
271
1.0
611
1.0
946
1.0
Draymen, hackmen, teamsters,
etc. e ,
79
.1
221
.1
870
.2
Porters and helpers (in stores,
etc.) /
2,028
5.4
315
1.3
489
.9
Boatmen and sailors
29
.1
57
.1
50
(d)
150
.2
Street railroad employees..
1
(d)
4
(d)
11
(<*)
45
.1
Hostlers *
1
W
22
(<*)
78
.1
B— Merchants and dealers (except
wholesale) g
5,651
1.6
14, 741
3.1
25,480
3.7
33,825
4.3
Hucksters and peddlers
1,463
4.3
2,420
4.5
2,182
3.8
2,792
3.6
68
.6
217
.5
1,271
1.7
Undertakers
20
1.0
54
1.1
83
.8
323
2.0
Bankers and brokers
20
.2
133
.7
510
1.4
293
.4
261
.6
Livery stable keepers
11
.1
33
.2
47
.2
190
.6
Other persons in trade and trans-
591
1.3
1,524
2.7
1,473
4.9
3,346
6.3
a The figures for 1890 relate to females 15 years of age and over.
b The Eleventh Census, 1890: Population, Part II, p. civ, gives the total number of women engaged in
'Trade and transportation" in 1880 as 59,839.
cln 1890 and 1870 included in "Bookkeepers, clerks, and saleswomen."
d Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.
« No women reported as engaged in this occupation in 1880.
/ No women, but 16,345 men reported in this occupation in 1870.
9 In 1890, 1880, and 1870 includes "Merchants and dealers" (wholesale).
260 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
TABLE A.— SOME STRIKES IN TEXTILE FACTORIES ON ACCOUNT OF REDUCTION IN
WAGES, 1829 TO 1878.a
Year.
Locality.
Per
cent
of re-
duc-
tion.
Authority.
1829
Taunton, Mass
Columbian Centinel, Boston, May 9 1829
1833
1834
1834
Manayunk, Pa
Philadelphia. Pa
Dover, N. H . . .
20
25
Perms ylvanian, Philadelphia, Aug. 28, 1833.
The Man, New York, Apr. 22, 1834.
The Man, New York Feb 20 1834 from Boston Transcript
1834
Lowell, Mass. . .
Do.
1836
1836
1836
do
Springfield, Mass....
Norristown, Pa
&12i
612J
Boston Transcript, Oct. 8, 1836.
National Laborer, Oct. 29, 1836.
National Laborer, Sept 24 and Nov 5 1836
1836
Chester Creek Pa
National Laborer Nov 5 1836
1842
Lowell, Mass .
c20
New York Daily Tribune, Jan 3, 1843 from Lowell Courier' Wash-
1843
Springfield, Mass...
ington Spectator, Dec. 30, 1842.
Eleventh Annual Report Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor
1844
Allegheny, Pa
1880, p. 5.
Workingman's Advocate, Aug. 17, 1844
1848
Fall River, Mass
Eleventh Annual Report Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor
1849
Cohoes. N. Y
1880, p. 6.
New York Daily Tribune Sept 3 1849
1850
1853
1858
1858
Philadelphia, Pa....
Blackstone and Ad-
ams, Mass.
Newburyport, Mass.
Springfield, Mass .
io
(d)
(d)
Report Bureau of Industrial Statistics of Pennsylvania, 1880-81, p. 275.
Eleventh Annual Report Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor,
1880, pp. 14, 16.
Eleventh Annual Report Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor.
1880, p. 16.
Do.
1858
Salem, Mass
12
Weekly Day Book, New York, Apr. 3, 1858.
1866
Paterson, N. J
Daily Evening Voice, Jan 19 1866
1867
Maynard, Mass
«10
Eleventh Annual Report Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor,
1867
Allegheny, Pa
(/)
1880, p. 22.
Boston Weekly Voice, Sept. 12, 1867; Workingman's Advocate, Sept.
1868
1869
Fall River, Mass....
Dover, N. H
18
12
14, 1867.
Eleventh Annual Report Massuchusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor,
1880, p. 24.
The Revolution, Dec. 30, 1869.
1874
1874
1878
Fall River, Mass
Philadelphia, Pa....
. . .do . . .
10
15
(a)
Baxter, History of Fall River Strike, 1875.
Workingman's Advocate, Feb. 28, Mar. 7, 1874.
National Labor Tribune. Nov. 16. 1878.
a This is not a complete list of such strikes.
& Rise in board.
c Previous reduction.
d For increase.
e Woolen mills.
/ From $4 to $3 per week.
g 1 cent per yard (carpet weavers).
TABLE B.— PIECEWORK RATES ASKED BY THE TAILORESSES UNION OF NEW YORK
AND THE RATES OFFERED BY A SMALL NUMBER OF THE EMPLOYING TAILORS,
JUNE AND JULY, 1831.
[From Carey's Selected Excerpta, vol. 4, pp. 4 to 10.]
Articles.
Tailor-
esses'
prices.
Cloth-
iers'
prices.
Coatees of cloth:
Single breast
$2.00
$1.75
Double breast
2.25
2.00
Coatees of satinet:
Single breast
1.75
1.25
Double breast
2.00
1.50
Coatees of bombazine, pongee silk:
Single breast
2.00
2.00
Double breast
2.25
2.25
Coatees of merino cloth:
Single breast
2 00
1.75
Double breast
2.25
2.00
Frock coats of the above-named thin goods:
Single breast
2.00
(a)
Double breast
2.25
w
Coatees of Circassian, bombazette, grass linen, or beaverteen:
Single breast
1.75
1.50
Double breast
2.00
1.75
Frock coats of the above
(a)
(a)
Hunting coats with flaps:
2.00
1.75
Breast pockets outside each pocket extra
.12
Double breast, extra
.25
.25
Cloth round jackets:
1.50
1.00
Second quality
.75
Braided edees. extra . . .
a Same as coatees.
APPENDIX.
261
TABLE B.— PIECEWORK RATES ASKED BY THE TAILORESSES UNION, ETC.— Cont'd.
Articles.
Tailor-
esses'
prices.
Cloth-
iers'
prices.
Satinet round jackets:
Fine $1. 25
Second quality 1.00
Coatees of angola or linen:
Single breast 1. 50
Double breast 1. 75
With breast pockets outside 2. 00
Pea coats:
Kersey or cloth, fine—
With rolling collars 2. 00
Standing collars 1. 75
Second quality-
Rolling collars 1. 75
Standing collars 1. 50
Baboon jackets, kersey or cloth:
Standing collars 1. 25
Rolling collars ,.. i. 50
Monkey jackets:
Kersey or cloth 1. 00
Lion skin or coating .75
Baboon or pea jackets, lion skin or coating 1. 00
Round jackets:
Bombazine, pongee, silk, or merino cloth-
Single breast 1. 00
Double breast 1. 25
Circassian, bambazette, or lasting-
Single breast .75
Double breast 1. 00
Brown linen, linen and cotton drilling, angola, etc. —
Single breast .75
Double breast .87
White linen and white jane —
Single breast .87
Double breast .99
Beaverteen—
Single breast 1. 00
Double breast 1. 12
Fustian, negro cloth, etc.—
Single breast .50
Double breast .62
Cloth for navy or marines, trimmed 1. 00
Coatees, cloth for navy or marines 2. 00
Pantaloons:
Common coarse cloth .50
Common satinet .50
Fine satinet .75
Bombazine, lined 1. 00
Merino cloth or cassimere 1. 00
Merino cloth, plain .75
Circassian and bombazette, lined .75
Circassian, brown linen drilling, cotton drilling, angola, etc., coarse, plain .50
Fine brown drilling, grass linen, nankeen, Circassian, bombazette, etc .62
Beaverteen or fine bang-up cord .75
Coarse bang-up cord .50
Duck 37
Duck, 1 seam and 2 pockets .25
Coarse fustian or negro satinet-. .25
Drawers of all descriptions .18
Vests:
Cloth, velvet, bombazine, or silk —
Rolling collar .75
Standing collar .62
White Marseilles and Valencia-
Rolling collars .75
Standing collars .62
Coarse swansdown, worsted, and all other coarse cotton goods-
Rolling collars .62
Standing collars .50
Cloaks, of cloth:
Without cape, plain collar 2. 00
With one cape, extra : .25
Each additional cape, extra .25
Corded collar, extra .25
With sleeves, extra .50
Cloaks of camblet:
Without cape, plain collar 1. 25
With or without cape, corded collar
Each additional cape, extra -25
Corded collar, extra .25
Wings or side welts .' 1-50
With sleeves 1. 62J
Common camblet, plaid —
Without cape, plain collar .75
With or without cape, plain collar
262 WOMAN AND CHILD WAGE-EARNERS WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
TABLE C.-WAGES OF SEWING WOMEN IN PHILADELPHIA IN 1863.
[From Fincher's Trades' Review, Nov. 21, 1863.]
Article or occupation.
Amount.
Unit of work.
Estimated
weekly
earnings.
Shirts a
$0 60
<S9 4Q
Fine shirts
1.00
do
Flannel shirts
$0 04- 06
Each
§2 16-4 32
Overalls
.50
Per dozen
Large cloaks
40
Each
2 4Q
Small cloaks. .
25
3 00
Capes
35
Corsets
2 50-3 00
Buttonholes on coats
4 00
Dressmaking
3 00
Linen coats
18- 20
Each
(b}
Vest makers
1 50-1 80
Sewing-machine operators
05
a In some establishments if a button was left off a shirt 25 cents Was said to be deducted from the pay.
& Two could be made in 10 hours' work, but the girls had to buy their own thread at 10 cents a spool,
one spool being enough for two coats.
TABLE D.— WAGES OF WOMEN IN NEW YORK IN 1863 AND 1866.
[From the Fourth Annual Report of the Working Women's Protective Union, quoted in the Daily
Evening Voice, Mar. 2, 1867.]
Occupation.
1863.
1866.
Cloakmakers
S4.00
$8 00
Shirtmakers' operatives
$6 00-8 00
$7 00- 8 00
Boys' clothing
4.00-6.00
4 00- 5 00
Cuff and collar operators
6 00-7 00
8 00- 0 00
Umbrella sewers*
3.00
5 00
Burnishers
3 00
4 00- 5 00
Military work
6. 00-7. 00
4.00- 5 00
Buttonhole makers . .
5 00
3 00
Dressmakers
f 3.00-5.00
3.00- 5.00
Fur sewers
\ 8.00
3 00-6 00
10.00
4 00- 7 00
Machine operators . .
5.00-7 00
7 00-10 00
Vest makers
2 50-5 00
4 00- 8 00
TABLE E.— WAGES REPORTED AS PAID INDIVIDUAL WOMEN IN NEW YORK IN 1868.
[From reports given by the women at a meeting of the Workingwomen's Association, No. 2, as given in
The Revolution, Oct. 1, 1868.]
Article or occupation.
Price.
Unit of
work.
Estimated weekly
earnings.
Hours.
Ladies' cloth cloaks
$2 00
Each
$14 00
Lace collars . .
.22
Per dozen.
3.96
12
Machine operators
$5.00- G 00
10-14
Fur sewers.
4. 50- 6. 00
Men's flannel shirts
.60
Per dozen
7.20
Dressmaker
7.00
14
Men's silk hats
7. 00-14". 00
Men's overcoats
11.00
13
Overcoat maker
13,00-14. 00
Hoop skirts . .
7. 00- 8. 00
13
Vests
.50
Each
5.00
Sewing finishers
3. 00- 5. 00
10-14
Men's striped shirts
.15
Per dozen.
1.80
/ 6.00
Parasol maker
1 10.00
20.00
10.00-12 00
9
Corset maker
1.00
Per dozen .
5.00
Straw-hat sewer
$0 04- .05
Per hat .
5.00- 6 00
Babies' embroidered jackets
1.00
Each
6.00
APPENDIX.
263
TABLE F.— WAGES REPORTED AS PAID INDIVIDUAL WOMEN IN NEW YORK IN 1870.
[Reported by "Shirley Dare" as given to her by the women themselves, New York Tribune, Feb. 26
Occupation.
Wages
per week.
Hours
per day.
Tailoress
$6.00
9
Do
6.00
H
Seamstress
9.00
10
Do
6.00
10
Do
6.00
10
Operator
8.00
12
Do
8.00
g
Do
6.00
10
Operator on coats
9.00
10
Cloak maker . ...
7.00
10
Dress and cloak maker
9.00
10
Dressmaker ...
9.00
10
Do
12.00
10
Do .
15.00
10
Lace maker
6.00
9
Do . ...
7.50
10
Fur sewer
5.00
10
Feather worker
6.00
9
Hat trimmer
12.00
12
Hat maker
8.00
10
Shoe fitter
12.00
10
Do
12.00
10
Glove sewer
7.50
g
Do
7.50
g
Do
8.00
8
TABLE G.— NUMBER OF GIRLS EMPLOYED IN BOOKBINDERIES OF SPECIFIED FIRMS
IN PHILADELPHIA, PA., WITH AVERAGE HOURS EMPLOYED PER DAY, PIECE-
WORK RATES, AND AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS 1835.
[From the Radical Reformer and Workingman's Advocate, July 7, 1835, p. 79J
Name of employer.
Average
number
of girls
em-
ployed.
Piecework rates—
Hours
worked
per day.
Average
earnings per
per week.
Per 100 sheets 8vo.
Per 100 sheets 12mo.
and 18rao.
Folding.
Stitching.
Folding.
Stitching.
Desilver, Herse & Lindsay a.
Kates & Co.o . ...
30
15
5
15
10
12
20
5
6
5
7
6
4
10
5
9
4
$0.02
.01*
.01|
.Oil
.02
.Olf
$0.02
.02
.02
.02
.02
.02
.02
(6)
$0. 02*
.021
.02i
.02i
.02!
.02=
.02i
(b)
.03)
.05*
(»)
.02*
(b)
.02*
$0.02}
. 02*
"C
of*
.02*
(*>)
.02*
.02*
.02*
7-9
7-9
7-9
7-9
7-9
7-9
7-9
7-9
7-9
7-9
6-8
7-9
10
8
8
7-9
10
$3.25
3.25
3.25
3.25
3.00
3.25
3.50
3.00
3.25
3.25
3.00
3.25
3.60
3.50
3.00
4.00
2.50
SI. 00-2. 00
Thomas Clark
Carpenter & Simmons
R P Desilver a
B. Gaskill
Jas Boyles
J. Locken
(»)
E. W.Miller
D. Clark a
.02
W.02
W.o2
.02
.02
.OH
.01*
.03*
">„
(%
.02
.02
C Peters o
J. Snider
J & R Edgar
R. W. Pomroy
Jas Crissey
Geo. W. Mentz & Son a
G P 'Story c
.02
L Clark
2
.02*
.02*
.02
a Employ one or more girls in jobbing, who are paid from $3.50 to $4 per week and who work from 8 to
] 0 hours per day.
t> Paid by the week.
c Pays 3 cents per 100 for stitching pamphlets, 800 of which is a good day's work.
INDEX.
A.
Page.
Absences from work, rules of textile factories regarding ........................................ 97
Ago groups, per cent of female breadwinners 15 years of age and over in specified, by race and nativity'
Agents, employment of women as .................................. ....../....[.................. 247,259
Agricultural pursuits:
Employment of women in ................................................................ 18, 246-24S
Number and per cent of females 10 years of age and over in, by geographical divisions, 1870^-1900. 246
Per cent of females 15 years of age and over in, and in specified occupations in, by race and nativ-
ity, 1890 and 1900 ........... ! ............. . ........ ... ........... . 247
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over in, by nativity, 1880-1900 .......................... ! 246
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over of each conjugal condition, by occupations, 1890 and
1900 .......................................................................................... 248
Allegheny, Pa., strikes for reduction of hours by cotton-mill employees in, 1845 ..................... 70
Americans, employment of, in textile mills ..................................... • ................ \ 81-83
Amesbury Mills, Mass., strike of textile factory girls in, against increase in number of looms ope^
rated by one person, 1836 ........................................................................ 109
Amusements, rules of textile factories regarding ................................................. ! . ! 98, 99
Apprenticeship in sewing trades ................................................................... 117
Army clothing, manufacture of, by women in Philadelphia, Pa., 1839 .............................. 122
Artificial flowers and feathers, employment of women m manufacture of ......................... 159, 253
Attendance at public worship, rules of textile factories regarding ................................... 98
Attitude of public toward employment of women ............................................ 1&-15, 38, 39
Awnings, tents, and sails, employment of women in manufacture of ................................ 251
B.
Bags, other than paper, employment of women in manufacture of ................................. 62, 251
Bags, paper, employment of women i
Baltimore, Md.:
,
s, paper, employment of women in manufacture of ............................................. 257
Impartial Humane Society of ................................................................ 126, 131
Ready-made clothing industry in, conditions of employment in .............................. 126, 1 27
Bankers, employment of women as ................................................................ 259
Barbers and hair dressers, employment of women as ............................................. 247, 254
Bartenders, employment of women as .............................................................. 254
Bethany, Pa., employment of women in manufacture of glass in, 1829 .............................. 226
Bethlehem, Pa., early manufacture of textiles in ................................................... 45
Beverly, Mass., early cotton manufacture in ................................................. 37,46,48,49
Blacklisting in textile factories ............................................................... 69, 70, 94-96
Boarding and lodging house keepers, employment of women as .............................. 247, 248. 254
Boarding houses, factory, in textile industry, and price of board ................................... 84-88
Boatmen and sailors, employment of women as .................................................... 259
Bohemian women, employment of, in cigar making ...................................... 198, 202, 203, 205
Bookbinderies of specified firms in Philadelphia, Pa., girls employed in, average hours per day, piece-
work rates, and average weekly earnings, 1835 ................................................... 263
Bookbinders, employment of women as .......................................... 209-211, 247, 248, 257, 263
Bookkeepers and accountants, employment of women as ................................. 240, 247, 248, 259
Boot and shoe making:
Changes in relative number of men and women employed in ................................... 116
Employment of women in ................................................... 116, 167-174, 247, 248, 253
Number of women wage earners in, and per cent which women form of total number of wage
earners, 1850-1900 ............................................................................ 253
Sewing machines, effect of, upon ............................................................. 171-173
Boots and shoes. (See also Clothing industry.)
Boston, Mass.:
Bookbinders, employment of women as ...................................................... 209-211
Cigar makers, employment of women as, 1871 ............................................ 198, 204, 205
Clothing industry, ready-made, early conditions of employment in ....................... 120, 125, 126
Domestics, employment of women as, 1847 ..................................................... 182
Dry goods stores, employment of women in, 1869 ............................................ 237. 238
Garden homesteads in, petition of working women for establishment of, 1869 ................... 22, 23
Glass factory, employment of women in. 1831 .................................................. 227
Hand cards'for combing cotton and wool, early employment of women in manufacture of ........ 45
Hats and caps, employment of women in manufacture of, 1 871 and 1872 ........................ 162
House of Industry. ... ......................................................................... 119
Paper-box makers in, wages of, 1869 ............................................................ 208
Printing and publishing, employment of women in .............................. 213, 214, 216. 218, 220
Scrub) ing women and charwomen in, wages of, 1S69 ........................................... 185
Sewing women in. employment and wages of ................................ 134, 145, 146, 148-150, 154
Straw goods, employment of women in manufacture of, 1834, 1835 and 1S69 ..................... 158
Textile manufactures in, early effort to encourage ..............................................
Tvpe foundries in, early employment and wages of women in ..................................
"\V asherwomen in, wages of, 1869 ............................................................... 184
265
266 INDEX.
Page.
Box makers, paper, employment of women as 247 248 257
Brass filing, employment of women in, New York City, 1867 '223
Brass finishers, wages of women employed as, Connecticut, 1874
Breadwinners. (See Female breadwinners; Wage earners.)
Brockton, Mass., early employment of women in boot and shoe making. . . 168 169
Brooklyn, N. Y.:
Compositors, employment of women as, and wages paid, 1868 218
Shoe fitters, wages of, 1871 '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 173
Washerwomen, strike of, for h igher wages, 1866 184
"Broomstick "strikes in Philadelphia, Pa., 1832 !!!!!!"!!!! 133
Buckles, employment of women in manufacture of 22S
Buffalo, N. Y., wages of sewing women in, 1864 '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 146
Burnishers, metal, employment of women as 222, 223
Buttons, employment of women in manufacture of " 105. 253
C.
California, wages of women employed in manufacture of leather in, 1875 229
Cambridge, Mass. , employment of women in glass-bottle factory in, 1830 226, 227
Canning and preserving fruits and vegetables, employment of women in 189, 190
Card-making machinery, effect of introduction of, upon employment of women 46
Carpet factory operatives, employment of women as 247, 251
Cartridges, rifle, employment of women in making, Newhallville, Conn., 1871 228
Causes of entrance of women into industry 15-17
Causes of ill health in factories 102, 103
Chairs, cane- bottomed, employment of women in manufacture of, Poughkeepsie N. Y., 1864 226
Chemicals and allied products, employment of women in manufacture of 221 , 226, 250, 258
Chicago, 111.:
Establishment of school by Western Publishers' Association in, for instruction of women in
printing 217
Meat packing, employment of women in 190
Saddles and harness, employment of women in manufacture of, 1871 229
Sewing women, wages of 151
Children, displacement of women employed as spinners by, after introduction of machinery 46, 47
Cigar makers:
Bohemian women as, employment of 198, 202. 203, 205
Causes of employment of women as 198-201
Employment of women as 195-205
Labor conditions of women employed as 201-205
Strike of, in New York City, 1877 199,200,202
Strike of , in Rochester, X. Y., 1885 205
Strike of, hi St. Louis, Mo., 1879 199
Strikes of, in Cincinnati, Ohio. 1869 and 1877 199
Substitution of American for foreign women as 200, 201
Wages of 204,205
Cigars and tobacco. (See Tobacco and cigars.)
Cincinnati, Ohio:
Printing and publishing, employment of women in 214, 215
Seamstresses in, wages of, 1843 134
Sewing women of, memorial to President Lincoln from, regarding Government subcontract sys-
tem, 1865 154
Strike of cigar makers in, hi 1869 and 1877 199
Civil War, effect of. upon employment of women 16,82,83
Clay, glass, and stone products, employment of women in manufacture of 221 . 226. 227, 250, 258
Clerks and ccpyists, employment of women as 238,239,247,248,259
Cleveland, Ohio, employment of women in cigar factories in 200
Clock and watch making, employment of women hi 224, 225, 258
Clothing industry :
Army clothing, manufacture of, by women in Philadelphia, Pa., 1839 122
Conditions in, during nineteenth century 117, 118
Contract system in 117,151-155
Cooperation of women in 118
Custom work in 116, 119
Division of labor in, effect of 115,116
Employment of women in 19, 20, 113-174, 250, 253, 254, 260-263
Evils of employment of women in, remedies for 118
Government work and subcontract system in 151-155
Home work in 116,117
Movement of, through home, shop, and factory 155
Number of women wage earners in, and per cent which women form of total number of wage
earners, 1850-1900 , 253, 254
Overstrain in, due to piece payment 117
Philanthropic efforts to aid women in 118, 11J
Piece payment hi 117
Ready-made, early labor conditions hi 120-133
Ready-made, growth of, after introduction of sewing machine 115, 142, 143
Ready-made, labor conditions hi, between 1835 and 1855 134-142
Ready-made, unemployment in, in early part of nineteenth century 126
Sewing machine, effect of, upon 115, 142, 143
Sweating system in 116,117,123-142
Wages of women in, in New York City, 1863 and 1866 262
Wholesale trade, development of 120-122
Collars and cuffs, employment of women in manufacture of 164, 165
Commercial travelers, employment of women as 259
Compositors, employment of women as 213-221
Conditions of labor. (See Labor conditions.)
Confectionery, employment of women in manufacture of 190,191,247,255
INDEX. 267
Page.
Conjugal condition:
Per cent of breadwinners In female population 15 years of age and over by, and by race and nativ-
ity, 1890 and 1900 245
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over of each, in specified occupations, 1890 and 1900 248
Connecticut:
Brass finishers in, wages of women employed as, 1874 224
Button makers in, wages of 165
Cigars, early manufacture of, in 196, 197
Cotton industry in, employees in, by sex, and per cent of women employed, 1831 55
Cotton-mill employees in, average wages of, 1831 74
Paper-box making in, wages of women employed in 208
Textile factories in, hours of labor of women in, 1832 63
Wool manufacture in, employment of women In 58
Contract system in clothing industry 117, 151-155
Contractors and subcontractors, Government, wages paid to sewing women by, 1863-1805 151-154
Cooperation of women in clothing industry 118
Copyists and clerks, employment of women as 238, 240. 247, 248, 259
Cordage and twine, employment of women in manufacture of 61.251
Corporation boarding houses 84-88
Corsets, employment of women in manufacture of 253,262
Cotton manufacture:
Changes in employment of women in 52-58
Cotton spinning by machinery, effect of introduction of 13
Decrease in proportion of women employed in, in New England States, since 1875 58
Displacement of women by men in, reasons for 57, 58
Education of employees in 89,90
Employment of women in 37,46-50,52-58,74,247,248,251,252
Hand labor in 37,43,44,55
Hours of labor of employees in 62-73
Illiteracy of employees in 88,89
Nationality of employees in, effect of Civil War upon 82, 83
Number of employees and per cent of women in, by States, 1831 54,55
Number of employees in, out of 10,000 in population over 10 years of age, and per cent of women,
at census periods, 1831-1905 56
Periods of 37
Proportion of women to men in, at beginning of nineteenth century 49, 50
Statistics of, at census of 1820 54
Strikes of employees engaged In 66, 70, 71
Ventilation in factories 102, 103
Wages, early, of employees in 74
Cotton manufacture. (See also Textile manufactures.)
Custom work:
Clothing trades 116,119
Early, in textile industries 42
D.
Daughters of St. Crispin (shoemaking), Lynn, Mass., wages earned by, 1869 173
Delaware, cotton manufacture in, early employment of women in 55, 74
Depressions, industrial, effect of, upon the employment of women 16,17
Detroit, Mich.:
Match factories, employment of women in, 1866 230
Sewing women, wages of, 1864 146
Tobacco and cigar factories in, conditions in, 1866 203
Division of labor, effect of, upon employment of women 13, 15. 16, 115, 116
Domestic and personal service:
Decrease in proportion 01 women employed in during nineteenth century 18
Employment of women in 18. 175-185, 246-248, 254
Number and per cent of females 10 years of age and over in, by geographical divisions, 1870-1900. 246
Number of women wage earners 16 years of age and over in, and in specified occupations under,
and per cent which women formed of total number of wage earners, 1870-1900 254
Per cent of females 15 years of age and over in, and in specified occupations under, by race and
nativity, 1890 and 1900 247
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over in, by nativity, 1880-1900 246
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over of each conjugal condition, by occupations, 1890
and 1900 .?. 248
Domestic servants:
Conditions of labor of 178-183
Nationality of. changes in
Wages of...... 74,179,180
Dorcas societies, work of, in clothing industry
Dover, N. H.:
Rules of textile factories in 94-99
Strike of textile-factory employees in, 1869
Draymen, hackmen, teamsters, etc., employment of women as _. 259
Dressmakers, employment of women as 247,248, -1'-
Druggists' preparations, employment of women in manufacture of 22b.
Dry goods stores, employment of women in 2*,^
Duck, manufacture of, in early period •»<*, 44< *»
Dyeing and cleaning, employment of women in «'*•£?
Dyeing and finishing textiles, employment of women in 01,02,251
E.
Earnings. (See W ages.)
Economic condition of women, general changes in eaaa
Education of cotton-mill operatives <*• °»
Efficiency of women and industrial education. - -*-
Electric apparatus and supplies, employment of women in manufacture of *m, .»»
268 INDEX.
Page.
Ellicott Mills, Md., strike in textile factory at, against locking in employees during working hours
and against reduction of wages, 1829 99, 100
Employment of women:
Attitude of the public toward 13-15,38,39
Expansion of sphere of 17-20
In factories, opposition to, in 1836 14,39
In industry, early 37
Increase in 12
Rules of textile factories regarding 94-100
English, employment of, in textile factories 81-83
Engraving and "lithographing, employment of women in 257
Entrance of women into industry, causes of 15-17
F.
Factory and homework 20,21
Factory system:
Boarding houses, factory, in textile industry 84-88
Boot and shoe making under, employment of women in 170-174
Cigar-making industry, effect of internal-revenue tax upon factory system in 199
Clothing industry, movement of, through the home, shop, and factory 155
Evils of 2S, 39, 118, 203
Health, effect of factory labor upon 100-108, 203, 204
Prejudice against, in Massachusetts, early efforts to overcome 79, 80
Textile-factory rules 94-100
Textile industries 50-62
Fall River, Mass.:
Cotton factories in, employment of women in 53
Strike of women weavers in, against reduction of wages, 1874 76
Textile factories in, hours of labor in 63, 71, 72
Fancy articles, employment of women in manufacture of 258
Farmers, planters, and overseers, employment of women as 248
Female breadwinners:
Number and per cent of, 10 years of age and over, in each occupation group, by geographical
divisions, 1870-1900 246
Per cent of, among female population, 1870 and 1900 12
Per cent of, 15 years of age and over, in specified occupations and occupation groups, by race
and nativity, 1890 and 1900 247
Per cent of, in female population 15 years of age and over, by race, nativity, and marital con-
dition, 1890 and 1900 245
Per cent of, of each conjugal condition, 10 years of age and over, hi specified occupations, 1890 and
1900 248
Per cent of, of total female population 15 years of age and over, by age, race, and nativity, 1890
and 1900 245
Per cent of, of total female population 16 years of age and over, by geographical divisions, 1870-
1900 245
Percent of, 16 years of age and over, in all manufacturing industries, compared with men 16 years
of age and over and with children under 16 years by geographical divisions, 1870-1900 249
Per cent of, 10 years of age and over, in each occupation group, by nativity, 1880-1900 246
Female breadwinners. (See also Wage earners, women.)
Female Burnishers Association, New York, 1868 222
Female Hospitable Society, Philadelphia Pa 131,132
Fines, rule of textile factories regarding 97
Fishkill, N. Y. employment of women in cotton factories in 52
Food and kindred products employment of women in manufacture of 20, 187-191, 250, 255, 256
)fa;
Foreign-born females 10 years of age and over in classified occupation groups, per cent of, 1880-1900. . 246
Foreigners, employment of, in textile factories of New England 81-83
Foremen and overseers, employment of women as 259
French Canadians, employment of, in textile mills 82, 83
Fur and fur goods, employment of women in manufacture of 253
Furniture, employment of women in manufacture of 225, 226, 259
G.
Gambling, rules of textile factories regarding 98
Garden homesteads, petition of working women of Boston, Mass., for establishment of, 1869 22, 23
Garment trades:
Hand work in 119-142
Machine work in 142-155
Georgia, early efforts to encourage textile manufactures in 41
Germans, employment of, in textile factories 81-83
Girls employed in bookbinderies of specified firms in Philadelphia, Pa., average hours per day, piece-
work rates, and average weekly earnings, 1835 263
Glass manufacture, employment of women in 226, 227, 258
Glove makers, employment of women as 165, 166, 247, 253, 262, 263
Gold and silver workers, employment of women as 247
Government employees, employment of women as 238-240
Government work and the subcontract system in the clothing industry 151-155
Great Barrington, Mass., strike in textile factories of, for reduction of hours, 1861 71
H.
Hair-cloth weaving, employment of women in 62
Hair cushions, employment of women in preparing, in New York City 226
Hair work, employment of women in 254
Hand cards for combing cotton and wool, manufacture of in early period 45
Hand knitting during colonial period
Hand labor in cotton industry 37, 43, 44, 55
Hand work in the garment trades 119-142
Handicraft and home-work period in textile industries 39-46
INDEX. 269
Page.
Handicraft or custom work In clothing trades 119
Hardware manufacture, employment of women in "!..!"!"!"!! 224
Harness and saddle making, employment of women in . " 228 229
Hartford, Conn., early manufacture of textiles in ' 45
Hats and caps, employment of women in manufacture of !! 159-1(52 247 253 263
Haverhill, Mass., early manufacture of textiles in ' 44
Health, effect of factory labor upon i<XM08 203 204
History of labor conditions ~ -Vt* :>,2
Home and factory work '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.". \ .... '. ... 20, 21
Home, shop, and factory, movement of clothing industry through the 155
Home work:
Boot and shoe industry . 167-170
Change from, to factory labor, effect of upon hours !!!!!!!!"!"."".. 23
Cigar making and tobacco industry 196-203
Clothing industry \\ 116 117
Manufacture of hand cards for combing cotton and wool, in early period '45
Nonwage-earning, decrease in 12
Textile industries, in early period . . 42 43
Home work and handicraft period in textile industries " " 39145
Hosiery and knitting mill operatives, employment of women as 59,60,247 248 252
Hospital for textile factory operatives established in Lowell, Mass. , 1839 ' 99
Hotel keepers, employment of women as 247,254
Hours of labor:
Average per day, piecework rates, and average weekly earnings of girls employed in bookbinderies
of specified firms in Philadelphia, Pa., 1835 263
Book binding, women employed in 210 263
Cigar making, women employed in !.!.!!!!!!!!!.. 205
Cotton factories 62-73
Effect of excessive, upon health of factory employees '.'. "io3-i08
In early part of nineteenth century 23
Printing, women employed in 212, 218
Reduction of, in textile "factories, histery of efforts for 67-73
Report of New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics, and Workingmen as to, in factories,
1832 65.66
Saleswomen 236-238
Textile factories 62-73
House of Industry, Boston, Mass 119
Housekeepers and stewardesses, employment of women as 247, 248, 254
Hucksters and peddlers, employment of women as 259
Hudson City, N. J., employment of women in manufacture of lead pencils, 1872 228
Illiteracy of cotton-mill operatives 88, 89
Immigrants, employment of, as cigar makers 198,201,202.205
Immoral conduct, rules of textile factories regarding 98
Impartial Humane Society, Baltimore, Md 131
Industrial depressions, effect of, upon employment of women 16, 17
Industrial education and efficiency of women 30-32
Industries, miscellaneous manufacturing, average number of women wage-earners in, and per cent
which women form of total number of wage-earners, 1850-1900 258, 259
Industry, entrance of women into, causes of 15-1 7
industry, first employment of women in 37
intensity of labor in textile industry, increase in 76, 77, 108-1 11
internal-revenue tax, effect of, upon factory system in cigar making 199
Irish , employment of, in textile factories 81-83
iron and steel and their products, employment of women in manufacture of 250
J.
Janitors and sextons, employment of women as 247,254
Jewelry, employment of women in manufacture of 258
Johnstown, N. Y. . manufacture of gloves in 165, 166
Jute and jute goods, employment of women in manufacture of 61 , 252
K.
Kentucky , wages of women employed in manufacture of leather in , 1875 229
Knitting, hand , during colonial period 43
L.
Labor conditions:
Cigar makers, women employed as 201-205
Clothing industry, ready-made 120-142
Division of labor as a cause for the entrance of women into industry 13
Domestic servants 178-183
Effect of scarcity of labor upon employment of women 16
History of 20-32
Sewing women after introduction of sewing machine 144-151
Textile factories, increase in intensity of labor in 108-111
Textile factories, labor supply in 79-81
Tobacco, women employed in manufacture of 201-205
Laborers not specified , employment of women as 185, 247, 248, 254
Lace goods, employment of women in manufacture of 156, 157
Laundresses employment of women as 183,184,247,248,254
Lawrence, Mass:
Intensity of labor in textile factories of, increase in 108,109
Reduction of hours of labor in, 1856 71
Leather goods, employment of women in manufacture of 221,228.229
270 INDEX.
Page.
Legislation, effect of, upon:
Economic condition of women _ u !2
H ours of labor
Linen cloth, early manufacture of, in the Southern States. . .
Linen goods, employment of women in manufacture of 252
Liquors and beverages, employment of women in manufacture of." ". ' ' 20 ioi 250 256
Literacy of cotton-mill operatives ' 88 89
Literary activity of Lowell, Mass., cotton-factory girls '.'.'.'.'.'. " 89-°*
Livery-stable keepers, employment of women as 259
Locking-in of operatives of textile factories during working hours " " 99,. 100
Looms, increase in number of, attended by one person " 76 77 108-111
Lowell, Mass.:
Cotton factories in, employment of women in 52,53
Early efforts to secure labor for textile factories of . ] 79^-81
Factory boarding houses at, and price of board .".."."!"""!"!!!"."!! 84-88
Health of textile-factory employees in 100-108
Hospital for textile-factory operatives established in, 1839 99
Hours of labor in cotton factories in, 1845 64,65,70,71
Literacy of cotton-mill operatives in 88
Literary activity of cotton-factory girls of, 1840-1850 !!"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 89-94
Nationality of female textile-factory operatives in, 1827 and 1856 81
Overtime in cotton factories in, 184*5 . . 66, 67
Rules of textile factories in 95-99
Wool manufacture in, employment of women in 58
Lowell Offering, publication of, by factory girls of Lowell, Mass '.'.'.'.'.'.'..'..'..'.'.'. 90-94
Lumber and its remanufactures, employment of women in 225, 250
Lumber and woodworking trades, early employment of women in 221
Lung trouble among textile-factory girls, cause of 107
Lynn, Mass., employment of women in manufacture of boots and shoes in 74, 167-174
M.
McKay machine, introduction of, in boot and shoe making, and "its effect 172
Machine, sewing, in the garment trades 142-155
Machinery, effect of, upon employment of women 11-13, 15, 16, 46-50, 142-155, 172, 219
Machinists, employment of women as, in New Bedford, Mass., 1867 223
Maine:
Cotton-mill employees in, average wages of, 1831 74
Employees in cotton industry in, by sex, and per cent of women employed, 1831 55
Passage of 10-hour law in, 1848 69
64
Manchester, N. H., hours of labor in cotton factories in, 1845.
Manufacturing and mechanical industries:
Early employment of women in 19, 20
Increase in proportion of women employed in, during nineteenth century 18
Number and per cent of females 10 years of age and over in, by geographical divisions, 1870-1900. 246
Per cent of females 15 years of age and over in, and in specified occupations under, by race and
nativity, 1890 and 1900 247
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over in, by nativity, 1880-1900 246
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over of each conjugal condition, by occupations, 1890 and
1900 248
Map and print coloring, employment of women in 208. 209, 257
Marriage, effect of expectation of, upon skill of women 31,32
Maryland:
Cotton-mill employees in, average wages of, 1831 74
Employees in cotton industry in, by sex, and per cent of women employed, 1831 55
Reduction of wages in cotton factories of, 1829 75
Massachusetts:
Blacklisting in textile factories in 69, 70
Cotton factories of, decrease in proportion of women employed in, 1831-1905 57
Cotton industry in, employees in, by sex, and per cent of women employed, 1831 55
Early efforts to encourage textile manufactures in 39, 40
Factory boarding houses in 84-88
Hats and caps, employment of women in manufacture of, 1837 159. 160
Hosiery, employment of women in manufacture of 59
Hours of labor of women in textile factories in 62-73
Lace, employment of women in manufacture of, 1828 and 1831 157
Literacy of cotton-mill operatives in * 88. 89
Nurses, early wages of, in 185
Paper making, employment of women in 206, 207
Petitions to legislature of, for 10-hour legislation 68
Rules of textile factories in 94-99
Shoe binders, early employment of women as 167-170
Silk manufacture in, history of, employment of women in 60
Straw goods, employment of women in manufacture of 157, 158
Strikes of textile-mill employees in 71,82
Textile manufactures in, employment of women in 37-111
Tobacco and cigars, early manufacture of, in 197
Wages of cotton-mill employees in 74
Wool manufacture, employment of women in 58
Working Women's League 31
Matches, employment of women in manufacture of 229, 230, 259
Meat packing, employment of women in 190
Men, effect of women's work upon wages of 27-30
Men's clothing, proportion of women of total employees in manufacture of, 1850-1905 143, 144, 253
Men's furnishing goods, employment of women in manufacture of 253
Merchants and dealers (except wholesale), employment of women as 247, 248, 259
Messengers, employment of women as 259
Metal burnishers, employment of women as 222,223
INDEX. 271
Page.
Metal products, not including clocks, clock cases, and watches, early employment of women in
manufacture of 221
Metal workers, employment of women as .'.'.'.... .221-225 248 250
Middlemen in sewing industry, complaints agains t, 1867 ' 152' 153
Milliners, employment of women as 137, 156-159, 247, 248, 253, 263
Mints, employment of women In
Mold, introduction of the, in cigar making and its effect upon the employment of women 198 199
Mount Vernon, Ohio, strike of printers against employment of women in, 1854 215
Mule and throstle (ring) spinning, relative importance of, as affecting employment of women"." " 53
Musicians and teachers in music, employment of women as " 248
N.
Nails and tacks, employment of women in manufacture of 223
Nashua, N. H., strike of cotton operatives against working "by candlelight," 1846... 66
National Labor Union, attitude of, toward women's work 26,27,30
National Trades' Union, attitude of, upon employment of women 14 i7, 26, 28^ 29
National Union Congress, attitude of, toward employment of female labor, 1867... '29*30
Nationality, changes in, of—
Domestic servants 178
Textile-factory employees ........... ^. ...... I. 81-83
Native-born females 10 years of age and over in classified occupation groups, per cent of, 1880-1900. . 246
Needles and pins, employment of women in manufacture of 254
Nets and seines, employment of women in manufacture of 252
New Bedford, Mass., employment of women as machinists in, 1867 223
Newburyport, Mass., employment of women in wool manufacture in 58
New England:
Association of Farmers, Mechanics, and Workingmen, report of, as to hours of labor in factories,
1832 65,66
Button makers in, wages of 165
Clothing trade, wholesale, development of '.'.'...'..'..'.'.'.'.'.' 120-122
Cotton manufacture in, decrease in proportion of women employed in, since 1875 58
Domestic servants in, effect of cotton factories on wages of 179
Health of textile-factory employees in 100-108
Hours of labor in cotton factories in, 1831-1847 63,64
Intensity of labor in textile factories of, increase in ] io8-lll
Literacy of cotton-mill operatives in 88, 89
Nationality of textile-factory employees in, changes in '." 81-83
Printing and publishing in, employment of women in 213-221
Rules of textile factories in 94-100
Saddlery busin ss in, employment of women in .".". 228
Straw good s , employment of women in manufacture of 157-159
Textile manufacture in, employment of women in 37-111
Tobacco, manufacture of, home work of women employed in 201 , 202
Wages in textile factories of 74_76
Newhallville, Conn., employment of women in making rifle cartridges in, 1871 228
New Hampshire:
Blacklisting in textile factories in 09
Cotton Industry in. employees in, by sex, and per cent of women employed, 1831 55
Cotton-mill employees in, average wages of, 1831 74
Hours of labor in textile factories in 63-65
Passage of 10-hour law in, 1847 69
Rules of textile factories in 94-99
New Jersey:
Cotton industry in, employees in, by sex, and per cent of women employed, 1831 55
Cotton-mill employees in, average wages of, 1831 74
Hours of labor of women in textile factories in, 1835 63
Passage of 10-hour law in, 1851 69
Strikes of cotton-mill employees In, for enforcement of laws relating to hours, 1845 and 1867 70
Newmarket. N. IT., employment of women in cotton factories in • 52
New York City:
Artificial flowers, employment of women In the manufacture of, and wages paid, 1845 159
Bookbinders, employment of women as 209-211
Brass filing, employment of women in, 1867 223
Cigar factories, conditions in, 1870 204
Cigar factories, employment of women and girls in, 1878 200
Cigar makers, Bohemian women, 1869 198
Cigar makers, strikes of, 1877 199,200,202
Cigar makers, wages of women 204. 205
Cigars, tenement-house manufacture of 203
Clothing industry in, ready-made, conditions of employment in 120, 124, 125
Clothing industry, wages of women in, 1863 and 1866 262
Confectionery establishments, wages of women employed in, 1870 191
Cotton industry, average wages of employees in, 1831 74
Cotton industry, employees in, by sex, and per cent of women employed, 1831 55
Domestic servants, wages of 179. 180
Dry-goods stores, employment of women in 235-238
Female labor in, results of an investigation of, 1845 22
Hair-cloth weaving, employment of women in 62
Hair cushions, employment of women in preparing 226
Hats and caps, wages of women employed in manufacture of, 1845-1871 160-162
India rubber, employment of women in manufacture of. 1853 229
Laundresses, wages of, 1851 184
Leather goods, employment of women in manufacture of, 1851 228, 229
Map and print coloring, employment of women in 208,209
Metal burnishers, employment of women as 222, 223
Milliners, wages of, 1845 156
Nurses, wages of, 1868 185
272 INDEX.
New York City— Concluded. Page.
Paper-box making, employment of women in 207,208
Parasol and umbrella sewers, strike of, and formation of union, 1870 164
Printing and publishing, employment of women in 212-214, 217-221
Sewing women, wages of 134-142, 145-150. 262. 263
Soap making and packing, employment of women in, 1851 228
Society for the Encouragement of American Manufactures, 1789 41
Society for the Encouragement of Faithful Domestic Servants, 1826-1830 177, 178
Straw'goods, employment of women in manufacture of, and wages paid, 1845 158
Tailors, strikes of, 1819 and 1833 120
Telegraph operators, employment of women as 241
Textile manufactures, early efforts to encourage 41
Tobacco, home work of women employed in manufacture of 201-204
Umbrella sewers, wages of, 1836-1870 162-164
Working Women's Protective Union 17, 25, 1£0
Norristown, Pa., strike of textile-factory operatives in, against reduction of wages, 1836 10y
Nurses and midwives, employment of women as 185. 247, 248. 254
O.
Occupations of women:
Assumed by men 13
At beginning of nineteenth century 17
Changes in 1 2-20
In colonial times 12
Number and per cent of females 10 years of age and over in classified groups, by geographical
div isions, 187()-]900 246
Per cent in classified groups, of native and foreign-born females 10 years of age and over, 1880-1900. 246
Per cent of females 15 years of age and over in specified occupations, by race and nativity, 1890 and
1900 ." 247
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over of each conjugal condition, in specified occupations,
1890 and 1900 248
Oilcloth, employment of women in manufacture of 252
Opposition to employment of women in factories 14, 39
Organization of women in clothing industry 118
Overstrain in clothing industry due to piece payment 117
Overtime in textile factories of New England 66,67
P.
Packers and shippers, employment of women as 247. 248, 259
Paper and printing industry, employment of women in 205-221 , 250, 257, 258
Paper and pulp mill operatives, employment of women as 206, 207, 247
Paper bags, employment of women in manufacture of 257
Paper-box makers, employment of women as 207, 208, 247, 257
Parasols, employment of women in manufacture of 162-164, 262
Paterson, N. J.:
Cotton factories, employment of women in
Cotton-mill employees, strikes for reduction of hours by, 1845
Cotton sail duck, early manufacture of 49
Textile factories, hours of labor of women in, 1835 63
Pawtucket, R. I.:
Cigar factories, employment of women in, 1876 200
Textiles, early manufacture of
Pencils, lead, employment of women in manufacture of, Hudson City, N. I. , 1872 228
Pennsylvania:
Cotton industry, employees in, by sex, and per cent of women employed , 1831 55
Cotton-mill employees, average wages of, 1831 74
Cotton-mill employees, strikes of, for enforcement of laws relating to hours, 1845 and 1867 70
Domestic servants', early wages of 179, 180
Paper making, early employment of women in 206
Passage of 10-hour law in, 1848 69
Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and Useful Arts, 1788
Textile factories, hours of labor of women in, 1833
Textile factories, rules of 95
Textile manufactures, early efforts to encourage
Tobacco, home work of women employed in manufacture of 201, 202
Pennsylvania. (See also Philadelphia; Pittsburg. )
Philadelphia, Pa.:
Army clothing, manufacture of, by women, 1839 122
Bookbinderies of specified firms, girls employed in, average hours per day, piece-work rates, and
average weekly earnings, 1835 263
Bookbinders, wages of, 1829 209.210
Boot and shoe making, employment of women in, 1858 171
Broomstick strikes, 1832 13.3
Cap makers, strike of, for increase of wages, 1843 .-
Cap makers, wages of, 1858
Cigar makers, employment of women as, 1870 and 1871
Cigars, early manufacture of
Clothing industry, ready-made, conditions of employment in 123, 124
Drygoods stores, 'employment of women in
Female Hospitable Society 131,132
Glass factory, employment of women in, 1833 227
Hosiery, employment of women in manufacture of 59, 60
Laundresses, earlv wages of
Map and print coloring, employment of women in 209
Paper-box making, employment of women in 207,208
Printing and publishing, employment of women in 212,214,215
INDEX. 273
Philadelphia, Pa.— Concluded. page.
Provident Society of 119, 129, 130
Sewing women, ellect of contract system on wages of, 1863 l,' 1,152
Sewing women employed on Government work, 1864 and 1865 I
Sewing women, wages of, 18(1:5 1 1."., 2f 12
Shoe binders, early employment of women as Ki7, Ki'.t
Shoe binders, strike of, 1836 21
Silver burnishers, wages of women employed as, 1863 223
Straw goods, manufacture of. employment of women in, 1858 1,>S
Textile factories, employment of women in 37,38,41,48.63,95
Philanthropic eil'orts to aid women in clothing industry 118, 119
Photography, employment of women in 259
Piece payment in ;he clothing industry 117
Piecework rates asked by Tailoresses' Union of New York, and rates offered by a small number of
employing tailors, June and July, 1831 260.261
Piecework rates, average hours per day, and average weekly earnings of girls employed in book-
binderies of specified firms in Philadelphia, Pa., 1835 263
Pittsbnrg, Pa.:
Clothing industry, ready-made, condition of employment in 127
Glass factory, employment of women in, 1844 227
Textile-mill employees, strike of, against reduction of wages without reduction of hours, 1867 70
Porters and helpers in stores, etc., employment of women as 259
Portland, Me., wages of sewing women in, 1865 146
Pottery, etc., employment of women in manufacture of 250, 258
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., employment of women in making cane-bottomed chairs, 1864 226
Power loom, period of, in cotton industry 37, 50
Premium system in textile factories 97
Press feeders, em plovment of \\ o:nen as 212
Printing and publishing:
Employment of women in 212-221,247,248,257,258
Establishment of school for instruction of women in, by Western Publishers' Association 217
Professional service:
Increase hi proportion of women employed in, during nineteenth century 18
Number and per cent of females 10 years of age and over in, by geographical divisions, 1870-1900. . 246
Per cent of females 15 years of age and over, in specified occupations under, by race and nativity,
1890 and 1900 '. 247
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over in, by nativity, 1880-1900 246
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over of each conjugal condition, in specified occupations
under, 1890 and 1900 ." '. 248
Proof readers, employment of women as 212.213
Providence, R. I.:
Cigar makers, employment of women as, 1864 198
•Cotton manufacture in, at beginning of nineteenth century 47, 48, 50
Cream of tartar factory, employment of women in, 1872 226
Locking-in of textile-factory operatives at, and results of fire, 18;ii; 100
Provident Society of Philadelphia, Pa 119,129.130
B.
Race and nativity:
Per cent of female breadwinners in female population 15 years of age and over by, and by age,
1890 and 1900 245
Per cent of female breadwinners in female population 15 years of age and over by, and by marital
condition, 1890 and 1900 245
Per cent of female breadwinners 15 years of age and over hi specified occupations by, 1890 and 1900. 247
Ready-made clothing industry:
Early labor conditions hi". 120-133
Growth of, after introduction of sewing machine 115, 142, 143
Labor conditions in, between 1835 and 1855 134-142
Reduction of hours of labor in textile factories, history of efforts for 67-73
Remedy for evils of women's work proposed by Mathew Carey 28
Rhode island:
Cotton industry, employees in, by sex, and per cent of women employed, 1831 55
Cotton-mill employees, average wages of, 1831 74
Cotton-mill employees, literacy of 88
Cotton-mill employees, strikes for reduction of hours by, 1861-1865 71
Lace, employment of women in manufacture of, 1832 157
Passage of 10-hour law in, 1853 69
Textile factories, hours of labor of women in, 1832 63,65
Ribbon manufacture, substitution of women for men in 61
Rochester, N. Y., strikes to:
Ciear makers in. 1885 205
Printers, 1864 216
Rubber and elastic goods, employment of women hi manufacture of 229, 247, 259
Rules of textile factories 94-100
S.
Saddle and harness making, employment of women hi 228, 22s
Sailors and boatmen, employment of women as 25T
St. Louis, Mo., strike of cigar makers in, 1879 19
Salem, Mass., employment of women hi cigar factories hi 200, 20,
Saleswomen, employment of 234-238, 247, 248, 25J
Saloonkeepers, employment of women as 25
San Francisco, Cal.:
Laundresses, wages of, 1869
Printers, strike of, hi 1869 and substitution of women for men
Telegraph operators, employment of women as
Women's Cooperative Union of. 220,221
49450°— S. Doc. 645, 62-1— vol 9 18
274 INDEX.
Page.
Savings of females employed in textile mills 77_79
Scope of the report 32-34
Scrubbing women and charwomen wages of, in Boston, Mass., 1869 "".".".""."".""".".""" "."". 185
Seamstresses, employment of:
Baltimore, Md 126127
Boston, Mass 134, 145',146,l48-15o', 154
Buffalo, N. Y., 1864 'l46
Chicago, 111., 1860-1878 '.'.'.'.'.'..'.. 151
Cincinnati, Ohio, 1843 '"i34 15
Detroit, Mich., 1864 ..III". 'l46
Early part of nineteenth century " 125-131
History of 115-155
New York City 134-M2, 145-150, 262, 263
Philadelphia, Pa 145,151-154,262
Portland, Me., 1865 146
Statistics of 247,248,262,263
Utica, N. Y., 1866 ' 146
Work of Working Women's Protective Union of New York in behalf of, 1867 and 1808 25, 150
Seats for female employees in stores, agitation for labor legislation for 238
Servants and waitresses, employment of women as 177-183, 247, 248, 254
Sewing and clothing trades, history of employment of women in 113-174
Sewing machine:
Effect of, upon boot and shoe making industry 171-173
Effect of, upon clothing trades 115; 142-155
Sewing trades:
Apprenticeship in 117
Complaints against prices for Government work in, 1864 153
Employment of women in 115-155, 247, 248, 262, 263
Memorial from women of Cincinnati, Ohio, to President Lincoln regarding Government subcon-
tract system, 1865 154
Movement of, from the home to the factory and workshop 155
Sewing women. (See Seamstresses.)
Shipbuilding, employment of women in 250
Shirt, collar, and cuff makers, employment of women as 134-137,247,248,253,262
Shoddy, employment of women in manufacture of 252
Shoe binders, strike of, in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1836 21
Shoe fitters, wages of, Brooklyn, N. Y., 1871 173
Shoemaking, employment of women in 11G, 167-174, 247, 248, 253
Shop and factory, movement of clothing industry from the home through '. 155
Sick, care of, rules of textile factories regarding • 99
Silk cloth, early manufacture of 42
Silk-mill operatives, employment of women as GO. 61f9*7, 248, 252
Smoking and use of spirituous liquors, rules regarding, in textile factories 98, 99
Soap and candles, employment of women in manufacture of 228. 259
Sources of the report 32-34
Spinners, history of employment of women as 13, 37-54
Spirituous liquors and smoking, rules regarding, in textile factories 98, 99
Springfield, Mass.:
Cotton factories, employment of women in 52
Straw goods, manufacture of, employment of women in, 1831 158
Standing, physical effects of upon saleswomen 236,238
Steam laundries, establishment of 183, 184
Steam railway employees, employment of women as 259
Stenographers and typewriters, employment of women as 233 . 240, 247, 248, 259
Stereotyping and electrotyping, employment of women in 258
Straw goods, employment of women in manufacture of 157-159, 259
Street railway employees, employment of women as 259
Strike breakers, employment of women as:
Cigar-making industry 200,201,205
Printing trades 215,216
Strikes:
Bookbinders, New York City, 1835, for increase of wages 210
Cap makers, Philadelphia, Pa., for increase of wages 1843 161
Cigar makers, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1869 and 1877 199
Cigar makers, New York City, against employment of women and children, 1877 199, 200, 202
Cigar makers, Rochester, N. Y., 1885 205
Cigar makers, St. Louis, Mo., 1879 199
Cotton-mill employees, Allegheny, Pa., 1845, for reduction of hours 70
Cotton-mill employees, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, for reduction of hours, 1861-1865 71
Cotton-mill employees, Nashua, N. H., against working "by candlelight," 1846 66
Cotton-mill employees, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, for enforcement of laws relating to hours,
1845 and 1867 70
Parasol and umbrella sewers and formation of union, New York City. 1870 164
Penalty for, in textile factories of Lowell, Mass 95 , 96
Press feeders in Government Printing Office, 1863, for increase in wages
Printers, Mount Vernon, Ohio, against employment of women, 1854 215
Printers, Philadelphia, Pa., 1854, on account of employment of women 215
Printers, Rochester, N. Y., 1864, and employment of women compositors 216
Printers, San Francisco, Cal., 1869, and substitution of women for men 217
Printers, Worcester, Mass., and employment of women 217
Shoe binders, Lynn, Mass., 1834 74
Shoe binders, Philadelphia, Pa., 1836 21
Tailors, New York City, 1819 and 1833 120
Textile-factory employees, against reduction in wages. 1829-1878 260
Textile-factory employees, Amesbury Mills, Mass., against increase hi number of looms operated
by one person, 1836
Textile-factory employees, Dover, N. HM 1869 109
INDEX. 275
Page.
Strikes— Concluded.
Textile-factory employees. Ellicotts Mills, Md., 1829. against locking in employees during work-
ing hours and against reduction of wages \ 99, 100
Textile-factory employees, Great Barrington, Mass., for reduction of hours, 1861 71
Textile-factory employees, Pittsburg, Pa., against reduction of wages without reduction of hours,
1867 70
Textile-factory employees, Salisbury Corporation and Amesbury Flannel Mills, Massachusetts,
1852 82
Textile-factory employees. Woonsocket, R. I., 1853 and 1865 72
Washerwomen, Brooklyn, N. Y., 1866 184
Women weavers, Fall River, Mass., against reduction of wages. is?4 70
Women weavers, Norristown, Pa., against reduction of wages, 1830 109
Subcontract system and Government work in the clothing industry 151-155
Subcontract system in ready-made clothing industry, introduction" of 143
Sweating system in clothing industry 116, 117, 123-142
T.
Tailoresses and seamstresses:
Effect of industrial depression of 1837 upon 16, 17
Employment of 1 15-155, 247, 248. 253, 260-263
Wages and conditions of 134-142,262,263
Taaloresses and seamstresses. (See also Clothing industry; Seamstresses.)
Tailoresses' Union of New York, piecework rates asked by, and rates offered by a small number of
employing tailors, June and July, 1831 200, 261
Tailoring business, entrance of women in 120-122
Tailors, strikes of, in New York City, 1819 and 1833 120
Tardiness, rules of textile factories regarding 97
Taunton, Mass.. employment of women in manufacture of nails in, 1872 223
Teachers and professors in colleges, employment of women as 247, 248
Telegraph and telephone operators, employment of women as 241,242,247.248,259
Tenement houses, manufacture of cigars in 202, 203
Textile manufactures:
Attitude of public toward employment of women in 38, 39
Average number of women wage earners in, and per cent which women form of total number of
wage earners, 1850-1900 251
Blacklisting in 69,70,94-96
Boarding houses, factory, and price of board 84-88
Duration of employment of factory operatives in 104
Early efforts to encourage 39-41
Employment of women in 19-21, 35-11 1 , 247, 248, 250-252
Factory system in 50-62
Foreigners in, employment of 81-83
Home work and handicraft period in 39-46
Hours of labor in factories (-2-73
Labor supply in 79-81
Movement from home work to factory work in 20, 21
Nationality of workers in si -S3
Overtime in factories 66,67
Premium system in 97
Rules of factories 94-100
Savings of female employees in 77-79
Strikes of employees in (JO, 70-72, 76, 82, 99, 100, 109. 260
Wages in 73-79
Throstle (ring) nnd mule spinning, relative importance of, as affecting employment of women 53
Tobacco and cig-jr manufacture:
Average number of women wage earners in, and per cent which women form of the total number
of wage earners, 1850-1900 256
Employment cf women in , 20, 195-205, 247, 248, 2oO, 256
Trade ar>d transportation:
Employment of women in 18,231-242,246-248,259
Number and per cent of females 10 years of age and over in, by geographical divisions, 1870-1900. 246
Number of women wage earners in, and per cent which women form of total number of wage
earners, 1870-1900 259
Per cent of females 15 years of age and over in, "and in specified occupations under, by race and
nativity, 1890 and 1900 247
Per cent of females 10 years of age and over in, by nativity, 1S80-1900 246
Per cent of lemales 10 years of age and over of each conjugal condition, by occupations, 1S90 and
1900 ! 248
Trade unions, women's, effect of, upon the standard of wages 11
Training of women as printers 217, 220
Troy. N. Y.:
Collars and cuffs, manufacture of, employment of women in 164, 165
Laundry workers, wages and hours of. during early sixties is 4
Truck store system in textile mills of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts 75
• Tuberculosis 'among textile-factory girls. . . '. 107
Type foundries in Boston, Mass. , early employment and wages of women in 222
U.
Umbrellas, employment of women in manufacture of 102-104 -
Unemployment 21 , 23-27, 126
Unions, women's, effect of, upon the standard of wages 11
Upholstering, emplovment of women in 226
Upholstering materials, employment of women In manufacture of 62, 252
Utlca, N. Y., wages of sewing women in, 1866 146
276 INDEX.
V. Page.
Vehicles for land transportation, employment of women in manufacture of 2.50
Ventilation in cotton factories 102, 103
Vermont:
Cotton-mill employees, average wages of, 1831 74
Cotton-mill employees, by sex, and per cent of women employed, 1831 55
Virginia:
Cotton-mill employees, average wages of, 1831 74
Cotton-mill employees, by sex, and per cent of women employed, 1831 55
Early efforts to encourage textile manufactures in 40
W.
Wage earners, women, average number of, and per cent which women formed of the total number
of wage earners in specified occupations in:
Clothing industries, 1870-1900 253,254
Domestic and personal service, 1850-1900 254
Food and kindred products, manufacture of, 1850-1900 255, 256
Miscellaneous industries, 1850-1900 258,259
Paper and printing industries, 1850-1900 257,258
Textile industries, 1850-1900 251,252
Tobacco and cigar manufacture, 1850-1900 256
Trade and transportation, 1870-1900 259
Wage earners, women, average number of, and per cent which women formed of the total number of
wage earners, summary of, by groups of industries, 1850-1905 250
Wage earners. (See also Female breadwinners.)
Wages:
And hours of labor in early part of nineteenth century 23
And unemployment 23-27
Artificial flowers, women employed in manufacture of 159
Bookbinding, women employed in 209-211 , 263
Bookkeepers, women employed as 240
Boot and shoe making, women employed in 169-174
Brass finishers, women employed as, Connecticut, 1874 224
Button makers 165
Cigar makers 204,205
Clerks 239
Clothing industry 123-154, 260-263
Confectionery, women employed in manufacture of 191
Cotton-mill employees 74
Domestic servants 74, 179, 180
Early efforts of women to secure increase of 24-27
Effect of women's unions upon 11
Effect of women's work upon men's wages 27-30
Effect upon, of increase in number of looms tended by one person 109, 110
Glass workers, women, 1845. 1850, and 1855 227
Hats and caps, women employed in manufacture of 160-162
Inequality of, received by men and women 24-27
Laborers, not specified 185
Laundresses 184
Leather, women employed in manufacture of, Kentucky and California, 1875 229
Low, Mathew Carey's crusade against 123-133
Map and print coloring, women employed in 208, 209
Meat packing, women employed in 190
Metal burnishers, women employed as, New York City 222, 223
Metal workers, women employed as 222-224
Milliners 137,156,263
Nurses 185
Paper box making, women employed in 208
Paper making, women employed in 206, 207
Piecework rates asked by Tailoresses' Union of New York, and rates offered by a small number
of employing tailors, June and July, 1831 260, 261
Printing, women employed in 212-219
Saleswomen 236-238
Servants and waitresses 74, 179, 180
Sewing women, and conditions of labor, after introduction of sewing machine 144-151
Sewing women, Buffalo, N. Y. , 1864 146
Sewing women, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1843 134
Sewing women, New York City 134-142, 145-150, 262, 263
Sewing women, paid by Government contractors and subcontractors, 1863-1865 151-154
Sewing women, Philadelphia, Pa., 1863 145, 262
Sewing women, Portland, Me., 1865 146
Sewing women, Utica, N. Y., 1866 146
Silver burnishers, women employed as, Philadelphia, Pa., 1863 223
Soap making, women employed in, New York City, 1851 228
Spinning mills, early, women employed in 47.
Stenographers and typewriters 239
Straw goods, women employed in manufacture of 158
Strikes in textile factories on account of reduction in 70, 76, 99, 100, 109, 260
Telegraph operators, women employed as 241
Textile-factory employees 73-79
Type foundries, Boston, Mass., and early employment of women in 222
Umbrella sewers, women employed as 162-164
Washerwomen 184
Watch and clock making, women employed in 224
Waitresses and servants, employment of women as 177-183, 247, 248, 254
Waltham, Mass.:
Cotton factories in, employment of women in 52
Early efforts to secure labor for textile factories of 79, 80
Introduction of power loom at, 1814 50
INDEX. 277
Page.
War. Civil, effect of, upon the employment of women 16,82,83
Washerwomen, employment and wages of 183,184
Washington, D. C., employment of women as copyists and clerks in 238-240
Watch and clock making, employment of women in 224, 225, 258
Watchmen, policemen , firemen, etc. , employment of women as 254
Wraxed-thread machine, effect of introduction of, upon employment of women in harness making. . . 229
Weavers:
Displacement of men by women 38,57
Hand, in cotton industry, 1831, by States 65
Strikes of, against reduction of wages 76, 109
Weaving and spinning, employment of women in, before the introduction of the factory system 44, 45
Wholesale trade in clothing industry, development of 120-122
Woman's Typographical Union of New York, action of, in regard to wages of women compositors, 1868 220
Women's Cooperative Printing Union, San Francisco, Cal 220,221
Woodworking and lumber trades, early employment of women in 221
Wool manufacture, employment of women in 37, 38, 46, 47, 58, 59, 247, 248, 252
Woonsocket, R. I.:
Locking-in of textile-factory employees at, and results of fire, 1866 100
Strikes of textile-factory employees in, 1853 and 1865 72
Worcester, Mass.:
Cotton factories, employment of women in 52
Printers, strike of, and employment of women 217
Working Women's Protective Union of New York 17,25,150
Worship, attendance at public, rules of textile factories regarding 98
T.
Yearly employment, rules of textile factories regarding 94-96
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